FOCUS...CAREER DEVELOPMENT

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Measuring Success
by Dr. David C. Cooper

Everyone wants to be successful. The question is how do you measure success?
Webster says that success is "a favorable or desired outcome of something
attempted; a prosperous or advantageous issue or the attainment of wealth,
fame, and so forth."

I like Winston Churchill's definition better: Success is going from one
failure to another without losing your enthusiasm. A Gallup Poll conducted
on 1,500 prominent people revealed five common traits of successful people-
common sense, knowing one's field, self-reliance, general intelligence, and
the ability to get things done.

Is that all there is to success? Jesus responds with a heart penetrating
question,"What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet
forfeits his soul?" (Matt 16:26).

There are two sides to the coin of success. First, success means to become
the person God created you to be. Success is internal before it is external.
It is measured by character not circumstances. God's greatest work is not in
what He does for us, but what He does in us. Theodore Roosevelt said, "If you
you want to be, then you are pursuing the person you don't want to be."

Second, success is a matter of accomplishing what you set out to accomplish.
It is reaching for your goals. If you find you have the wrong goals then,
change them! If your strategy isn't working, then change it! Success is
largely a matter of hard work and determination to accomplish what you set
out to do. Don't merely try - do!

As Yoda tells Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, "There is no try, only do!"

Go out and face the challenges of life with the will to win, the desire to
succeed and the goal to please the Lord!