Measure of Success

When people talk about being successful they're generally referring to a career or how much money a person has acquired. The amount of money I had was how I judged how successful I was. Less money meant that, to me, I was less of a person.

It's taken a long time to realise that success can be measured in many different ways and it got me thinking of the things I've done since I published my first book back in 2012. When it first came out, I thought I would be one of those overnight success stories. I thought all my problems would be solved with a single book.

I may have been naïve in that way of thinking but, a long the way, I've learned a lot more about the measure of success. It's not about money, nor fame, but about the little things. The tiny moments in time when we realise that we're better off physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, or financially than we were yesterday.

For example, thanks to my writing, I've achieved the following:

• Travelled long haul for the first time in over a decade.
• Met many wonderful people who I ordinarily wouldn't be able to meet.
• Given lectures.
• Made new friends and reconnected with old ones.
• Visited some amazing places in the British Isles.
• Created work with some incredible authors.
• Become involved with some brilliant projects.
• Taken over, and now run, a large writing website.

Success shouldn't just be measured by how someone looks or how much wealth they've managed to accumulate or whether they're on the cover of magazines. There are so many ways for a person to measure how successful they are. Sometimes it's the smaller things that mean something to a person.