You're Not a Success...Is That True?

There's a new blog game in town and I've been tagged again (by Mona). I really like this one, the "simply successful secrets" meme.

What makes you successful on a daily basis?

As Mona noted, when we speak of success, it doesn't necessarily have to mean financial success...although that is what came to my mind first, along with all the yeahbuts ("Well, I can pay the bills because I sold a home last year, but that doesn't make me a financial success!") I had a huge list of things I could be doing daily, think I ought to be doing and don't do (such as exercising, organizing my expense receipts, writing and working on an entire Judge-Your-Neighbor worksheet)...but that wasn't the assignment and also we could be here all day discussing that!

In addition, I thought of a lot of success-oriented things that I don't do every day and don't need to (such as post blog entries). It was harder to come up with five "everyday" items until I sat with this question for awhile.

1. I stay in touch with friends and loved ones. I live and work alone, so whether it is writing an email, making a phone call, seeing people socially or in the street, I reach out to at least one "significant other" each day. (I consider my clients my friends and loved ones too, so they count!) A day without communication feels incomplete to me...so I never have one.

2. I get out of bed. If you have ever been depressed, you know this is no small thing. For years it was a very big deal to emerge from under the covers. I'd wake up and think to myself, "Oh, God," and because I was so burdened with my thoughts, I didn't get out of the bed until I absolutely had to. On the rare occasions that the "Oh, God" thing happens these days, I still get out of bed because I realize I'm believing what I think...and it's time to do The Work. So I'm very successful, each day, at jump-starting my life soon after I open my eyes.

3. I breathe. Those of you who are asthmatic know this is no small thing either! And I am grateful for each inhalation and exhalation. I like to take a few minutes each day to focus quietly on this miracle that, until I had my first asthma attack, I took for granted.

4. I take at least one hot shower each day. It wakes me up, it's soothing, my body unstiffens and even if none of the above were true, I just enjoy being very clean. I shower even when I'm sick and barely able to stand; sponge baths don't cut it.

5. I read something uplifting before I go to sleep. It might be a chapter of a memoir, a passage from a "spiritual" book, a poem, a lovely email from a friend...it might even be something I've written myself.

Byron Katie says,

"We do only three things: we stand, we sit, we lie horizontal. When you're successful, you'll still be sitting somewhere....What is success? You want the three-thousand-dollar chair, not the ninety-nine-dollar one? Well, sitting is sitting....Without a story, I'm successful wherever I am. I know how to stand, sit, and lie down."

Me too.

If you are reading this and you have your own blog, consider yourself "tagged." If you don't have your own blog and you're a registered user of Blogger, I invite you to use the comment section to post your own five "daily success secrets."


©2007 by Carol L. Skolnick. All rights reserved.