Success: Happiness Style

As news is spreading about my first book being released, I’m having some interesting questions from people. The kind where you feel the punch in your gut and know how you answer really informs how you’re shaping your world. At a BBQ recently on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, a woman asked me how I defined success as a writer. I took a moment. The view I had could have graced an Oscar-winning movie in cinematography. The dark, rolling water stretched for miles layered over by a blue sky dotted with fat clouds. I listened. The waves had their own internal rhythm–like my life. I thought, this question isn’t only about me being a writer. As such, my answer came out surprisingly easily.

Success for me is when I’m happy with what I’ve done. This could mean how the story is going as I’m writing or the finished manuscript. Believe me, when I’m smack dab in my bliss of writing a magical scene with my characters acting on The Writer’s Stage of my mind in full complement, I know it’s working. I’m happy with myself and what I produce. It’s that feeling of “Yes!.”  When I close my computer, I haven’t thought of it as success, but it’s a sense of accomplishment. And when I finish the first draft of a book, I’m happy. I did it! I always celebrate by opening a bottle of champagne. I toast myself and my characters and their story–and all who are going to read it. It’s happiness because I’m living my life purpose and producing what I am meant to contribute to the world. That’s my success.

Having had another career in a corporate sense, I remember the trap of success: raises, promotions, being selected for a certain high-level business trip, attending the big meetings, etc. We all have our own list of these. I always felt like I was striving for the next thing, and funny how when it came, the good feelings wore off pretty quickly. Then it was back to the grindstone again.

I don’t plan to fall into that trap again. I’m not suggesting external measurements don’t give us a sense of how we’re doing, but they don’t often bring us happiness. If they did, we wouldn’t see so many unhappy “successful” people.

I’m choosing a happiness I can control (not the ones outside of myself), rooted in my gifts. I’m trusting in my voice, and in my vision for my writing and my new career.

So, when someone asks you how you define success, how are you going to answer?