Define what success looks like for you and then go after it

Happiness. That is what success is to me. That’s my KISS (keep it simple stupid) definition. For some people this will equate for financial and material success and the comfort and pleasure that this gives them. To me its about health, family, friends and a cold glass of wine on a summer evening. Sure I don’t like to stress about money or about having to pay bills and I would surely love to able to buy whatever I wanted whenever I wanted – but being surrounded by people I enjoy spending time with is what really floats my boat.

Kelvin would tell you that I am a shop-a-holic and if I am feeling stressed or a bit down, my brain desperately wants to hit the mall and get that instant high from retail therapy. But man the downer afterwards is hideous – the guilt of spending money on clothes that should have paid for solar panels for the house or worse food; the desperate stuffing of bags in the back of the wardrobe so the husband doesn’t see them or, and this is the very worst, the lecture from husband who has checked the bank balance and now has to work out how to pay after school care fees, buy food and make sure that the mobile phone account isn’t cut off. Yeah retail therapy is for braver people than me these days!

So I have KISSed my life – take joy in the small things. The glass of wine with good friends on a warm summer evening; the smell of a small boy straight after a bath who wants to tell you about how Batman will always beat Spiderman in a fight; and the smile of a 9 year old who still thinks that you are a fount of all knowledge and wisdom. Oh and the occasional snog from the hen pecked husband too.

I reckon anyone who can get to the end of their lives and who knows that they have a family that loves them; who has had friends to laugh, cry and carry them through the years is a success. It doesn’t matter that in 200 years nobody knows who you were and your existence is immortalized only in birth, death and marriage records – you were still an amazing success.

That’s what I am aiming for anyway! And the good news is that tomorrow is Friday and I am promising myself that lovely glass (or three) of wine. Life doesn’t get much better hey?