Success – Two Options – What’s Your Choice?
Everyone wants to be successful. If we were to stop 1,000 people on any street anywhere and ask them the question, “Do you want to be successful?” Chances are, if they are honest, 100% of them would say “Yes.” The desire to matter is in every human.
But if we were to follow up with the question “What is success for you? How do you define it” we would get a hodge-podge of answers that would predominately be either immeasurable or amorphous. Things like “To Be happy” or “To have a lot of money” or “To be famous!” Meaningless non-answers.
And if we asked a third question, “What are you doing every day to become successful by your definition?” the answers would be even more vague.
The problem is that, while all of us want to be successful, most of us don’t really have a clue as to what success is, let alone how to measure it or obtain it. Success as it is presented to us in the media, or generally in our culture, is almost always linked to material wealth, reputation, or power. The problem is that those measures are always moving targets, actually attaining them is very rare, and even for the few that do, prove to be far less than we conceive them to be.
I’m a bottom line guy so let’s cut to the chase. There are only two ways to measure success, material and spiritual. I am a Christian so I measure success in spiritual terms. Here’s why. I believe that we are all eternal beings and that what we do in the short time that we spend on Earth matters greatly to us after we eject the planet.
If there are no consequences beyond what we experience in this life, then the only sin is getting caught and the survival of the fittest is the deal. Don’t talk to me about what I owe to civilization, or to my country, or to others, I owe nothing. If all there is to life is to grab as much of what there is and then die like a dog, I owe nothing! If I can cheat you and get away with it – fine. If I can kill you and not get caught – no problem. If I like your wife better than mine – I take her, and if you don’t catch me – no sweat. If I am smarter or stronger or luckier than you too bad for you. When we die, we die. Dust to dust and that’s it. If there are no consequences to bad acts beyond what we experience in the present, no afterlife, no ultimate judgement – get what you can while you can, just don’t get caught or be sure that you have enough money or clout to get out of it if you do!
I know that in our culture many if not most disagree with me. Most believe that there is no absolute truth and that everything is relative. Most live like they will never die in the face of conclusive evidence to the contrary. Get a grip! I’m dieing, you are too! The only real question is the date, it’s not if it’s when! And then…what? Nothing? OK, live for today, get all you can, enjoy it while you can.
I don’t believe that and I could really care less what anyone else believes, I’m all in. I’ll live with my choice. You may or not agree, but it’s for sure that we will both know the answer in the second we draw our last breath.
The options are simple, live for today or live for THE DAY. Too many Christians are just as fuzzy about what success will look like for them as those who have no promise of eternal life. By default they accept the world’s standards and live like practical atheists. What a waste! We only get one trip around the track, one chance to get it right. Is this important? Is spiritual success important ? You bet it is, eternally important.
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Buck Jacobs, Chairman and Founder of The C12 Group, LLC - Christian CEO and mentor. Buck has an extensive background in successful organizational development based on the principles found in scripture. The motto of the C12 group is "Building great companies for a greater purpose." 
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Thank you Nancy! Here’s hoping you are making the right choice!
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