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Have you ever really thought through the question of “what really is success and achievement?”

Too many think that success is about money – or to own certain worldly goods. You could measure it that way and many do! But that is a very superficial measure of success.

Money and the worldly goods that go with it have always been a measure of financial wealth and there is nothing wrong with that, when the wealth comes from honest means. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that there are many different forms of wealth.

• If you have a skill, then that skill is a form of personal wealth.
• If you can communicate with others in your speech or written word or any other way that you interact with others, at all times in a kind, respectful, courteous way, then that too is a wealth. People that treat others with contempt and rudeness are poor in spirit; they lack this wealth.
• To have a richly fulfilling family life, is also a wealth.
• To be happy at your chosen field of employment is a wealth.
• To have a rewarding hobby or interest is a wealth.

In fact when you think about it, there really are all kinds of wealth around each of us already, if we would only see it that way. If a person were to write down a list of the wealth around them that they take for granted, then they would be surprised by the length of that list. Why not write that list?

Real success is to choose to do something, be it – large or small – easy or hard. Then to see it through to the end until you see it achieved in full.

Earle Nightingale descried it this way – “Success is the realisation of a worthy ideal” What that means is, anything that we choose to do deliberately, choose to do and make a real purpose out of doing.

Choose to do something, then do it well by repetition of doing the thing you love and improving at it by practice, that is success. You become a hard act to follow as you become skilled and proficient at the pursuit of your own choosing. When you see it through to the end ultimately you will have reached achievement.