Am I Successful Enough?

I am on a mission to redefine success. It is so often in our culture we define success in terms of what we do and not who we are. What would the world look like if success was measured by who we are being – a loving father, a dedicated lover, a conscious business person, a compassionate human being. There is a great movement in today’s business climate to expand the definition of success from one “p” to three “p’s.” Many organizations are starting to define their own success from the perspective of their profit and additionally the planet and the people. This creates a holistic approach to business rather than a singular track “money approach” to the situation. These companies do enjoy profits as well, but without sacrificing our planet nor people in the process. This works on a personal level as well. If we define our success solely based on how much money we are earning or how much power we have, we ultimately forget the greatest impact we can have on this planet. The greatest impact we can have is to be the best person we can be. If we learn to be more compassionate toward ourselves, our capacity to be more compassionate towards others effortlessly increases.

How do you define success for yourself? How can your definition be expanded to reflect your soulful desires? Please share your answers.

Success by Ralph Waldo Emerson

• To laugh often and much.
  
• To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
  
• To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends.
  
• To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others.
  
• To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition.
  
• To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.

Life Balance
Movies can impact our lives. We learn, we change our perspectives and sometimes we are able to experience emotional clarity that gets us closer to the lives we truly want. I wanted to share with you two movies that I have recently seen that I can’t help but promote to the world.

Me and You and Everyone We Know – a film about the dance of moving towards and away from each other as a reaction to fears and emotional upheaval. The characters’ failures to connect are charming and endearing. The movie is quirky, poetic, funny, beautiful and obviously independent. It won the Originality of Vision prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

Crash – a grim look into xenophobia against the backdrop of crime-ridden Los Angeles. The dialogue is insightful and intelligent if not always pleasant to sit through. It’s definitely worth renting when it comes out on DVD on September 6, 2005.

I also wanted to share the response of one of my readers to the Mix Tape/CD section of my last newsletter.

“Several years back my son, Emerson, gave me a Father's Day gift of a mixed CD containing some of my favorite tunes. He also included some of his favorite artists (like 311) that he sensed I might enjoy. I am compelled to share with you that I love every cut on the CD, which is a permanent participant in the CD changer installed in my car. Yes, I cherish the gift of love from Emerson and feel so very close to him whenever I hear a selection from the list that he so carefully put together for me.” -- Len

Personal Reflection
I had been excited about going to hear Pema Chodron and Jack Kornfield speak in San Francisco for at least a month. Finally the big day comes. I get to the Masonic Auditorium, with a good friend Max, to find the place in a complete disorganized state of chaos. The will call line looks like the longest, most tangled dragon in a Chinese New Year’s Parade. It’s now 45 minutes past the time when the talk was supposed to start and I still have at least 500 people in front of me waiting to retrieve their tickets. Suddenly the staff gives up and tells everyone to just go in and sit down as if the tickets were all general admission. This certainly created some confusion as some people who have already claimed their tickets were displacing others who were already comfortably sitting in their seats. I was fortunate enough to get a 2nd row center seat in a 3000-seat, mostly full auditorium.

Wasn’t I lucky?

As the two great spiritual leaders began to lead us in a short meditation, I began to have trouble getting into a relaxed meditative state. I kept opening my eyes with the fear that I am going to lose my newly found precious seat. I couldn’t get into the present moment to enjoy my meditation, these great speakers nor essentially my life as it was being presented to me at that moment. Wasn’t I lucky to have found that seat? Would I have enjoyed the experience more had I been sitting in the last row without the fear of losing my seat?

Yet this experience was such a wonderful gift as it reminded me how much we sabotage our own lives and our enjoyment of the things in our life that are precious and that we are afraid to lose. It allowed me to appreciate more the wonderful things I have in my life. It allowed me to suspend my fear and enjoy them if only for a moment.