What are your success conditions for life? That is, what conditions need to be met for you to consider your life successful?
I mean, for other things, for specific goals, I can see it. If my goal is “write a novel” then when I’ve written a novel I’ve succeeded. If my goal is “don’t worry, be happy” than as long as I’m happy and worry-free, I’ve met the conditions of the goal.
I’ve currently got the goal of creating a complete, playable video game by the end of the summer, preferably with a version compiled for the GBA platform. I’ll know I’ve met it if, before the end of the summer, I’ve got a complete, playable video game. The fact that I have a playable version of it with all the features I considered to be ‘core features’ already working is a good step. Getting to the further goal of creating a working version on the GBA is a challenge I haven’t begun to face, but I don’t consider that to be a success condition of the overall goal, more of an additional goal.
I also have the goal of writing, editing, and putting in print the third book in the Untrue Tales series before the end of the summer. I haven’t started that yet, but … depending on other factors, I may be able to achieve that goal in a weekend.
I also have the goal of getting a literary agent to represent me by the end of the year, and the sub-goal of compiling a list of 50 agents I would like to query, agents I would like to represent me, and begin sending out query letters before my birthday in September at the very latest.
And if I finish the video game, heck- even finish it for the GBA, before the end of the summer… And if I finish book three in the same period… And if I not only get a very quick and positive response back from one of more of the agents I send query letters to, but actually sign with an agent before the year is out… If I do all these things, meet all these success conditions, am I successful? Is my life successful?
Maybe it’s something else. Maybe it’s money and a house and a car. Things. Well, I have those sort of goals too. I just posted about them.
I’m going to try to pay off one of my three debt accounts by the end of the year (or so), so I only have the two active accounts remaining.
I may end up trying to buy a place of my own, a condo or a small house, around the beginning of the year. ((or maybe I’ll just rent for a while, or maybe I’ll take up some friends who offered to let me live with their growing family))
I keep looking at getting a car of my own, looking at prices and then trying to figure out actual ongoing costs such as payments, insurance, gas, maintenance et cetera, not because I have any real desire to go further into debt, but to remove the dark cloud that hovers over the car I’m using now – it isn’t mine, I’m using it out of the courtesy of my father, and that right could be taken away without warning or cause at any time. It wouldn’t be a wise financial move, especially if I were buying a house on my own with my current income, but it’s within the realm of possibility.
Anyway, if I were living in a place I owned, driving a car I owned, and had my debt more under control (besides the car and home loans, of course), would my life be successful?
Or perhaps it is love, or the appearance thereof? If I were in a relationship that didn’t break any laws or vows, and it lasted for more than a couple of months, perhaps even turned into co-habitation and/or marriage, is that it? Is that the success condition of a life? A relationship, companionship, marriage? To love, and be loved in return? Even just to be tolerated by someone ‘more than friends’ year after year…?
Maybe it’s something else? Is believing in Jesus Christ a success condition of life? How about being baptised? What about being baptised in the Holy Spirit and praying in tongues? What about becoming a Muslim? What about becoming a Clear or OT?
Is a High School diploma, a college degree or a doctorate a success condition for life?
Is it the children I father and/or raise? And if that’s it, am I only successful if my children are successful?
What conditions need to be met for you to consider your life successful?
Are you a success, or a failure?
