This week I struggled to answer the question, "How do I define success?" I wanted to come up with a list of goals, accomplishment milestones, anything that I could share with you guys. I came up with nothing.
As much as I love to make lists, I hate to define things. I see defining things (or people) as limiting and stifling. I avoid labels, groups, and anything else that circumscribes me, so, to define success, for myself or anyone else, totally goes against my grain.
The more I thought about it, the more I kept coming back to these two comments from my other thinky posts:
Curipisa said, about a friend talking to her son about how to choose a career, " ...she advised him to consider not the kind of job he wanted to do, but what kind of life he wanted to live ..."
Elizabeth said, "... My good friend Sam got really inspired by Buckminster Fuller recently and does a lot of thinking about re-defining wealth. I'm tired of the tired old definitions that people use to measure themselves and each other by, and to beat themselves up so they feel unsatisfied and lacking. RE-DEFINE EVERYTHING!!!!!!"
I've decided to answer the question by not answering the question ... by redefining success. Success isn't a goal and life isn't a path leading to a goal.
My life is amorphous, a collection of circumstances. Sometimes things are great, sometimes they suck. Success, for me, would be to live in context; to be aware of my circumstances and make my decisions accordingly. I want to make the journey the destination.
And, now that I've written this all down, I can see that the adjustments I've made since I wrote that angry post a couple months ago fit neatly within this framework. Those adjustments are:
- Saying yes to obligations that value my time and talents, and saying no to ones that don't
- Prioritizing projects based on how excited I am about them
- Taking pressure off myself to 'accomplish' something
- Remembering that small things accumulate and eventually become something bigger
As you can probably guess, all of this introspection isn't to figure out whether I should spend my time crocheting a handbag or sewing a squirrel stuffie. I'm asking these questions to address all areas of my life: private, professional, and crafty. And, although crafting can sometimes give me a reason to rant, usually it's my refuge. Especially when you guys are listening ... like now. :)