WHAT IS SUCCESS? (AND WHY DON'T MANY GET THERE?)

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. Put another way, only about 5% of Americans have reached financial independence or better by the time they reach retirement age. In the richest country in the world, 95% of us don’t manage to take advantage of all the opportunities available to us. Why is that? If someone is working toward a predetermined goal and knows where he or she is going, that person is a success. If they are not doing that, they are failures. In Rollo May’s Man’s Search for Himself, May writes, “The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice… it is conformity.” Try this: Set aside an hour or two to review your life plan. Do you know what goal you are working towards? Not your next promotion or career step, but your ultimate goal. Say you want to retire by 55 and travel the world for 5 years before settling down in your seaside cottage in Maine (hey, we’ve all got dreams!). Do you know what financial resources you will need in order to make that happen? And are you working toward them? "All you have to do is know where you're going. The answers will come to you of their own accord." – Earl Nightingale