Do you consider yourself a success? If you don’t, you have lots of company. Only 5 to 10 % of Americans think they are really successful. If you seek more success, ask yourself:

·What is success to me?

·What matters most to me?

·How can I become more successful?

To many people, success means things like

·Money ·Fame ·Love ·High status in society ·Great clothes ·A beautiful house ·A fast, luxurious brand new car ·A highly respected job ·Power over others ·Knowledge ·Making a contribution to world around you

What’s in your picture of success? What do you really need to be a success, on your terms?

One of best definitions that I have seen for success is “the progressive realization of worthwhile, predetermined personal goals”. Each part of this definition is very important.

Predetermined goal means you must define what you want to achieve Surveys show that only about 3% of all people go to trouble of writing down their goals. If you take this one step, you advance much closer to winners’ circle.

What’s a worthwhile goal? One that is important to you, and is congruent with your values, and that is not aimed at hurting others. So setting a goal that really is worthwhile requires knowing something about yourself, and some quiet reflection.

My parakeet is named Yazzie. Yazzie is Navajo for small or little. Yazzie is just your average parakeet, she spends her day eating, cruising around her cage, and playing with her bell. This past week, Yazzie's bell broke, and she was fairly miffed about it. So, like good parakeet pal that I am, I went to pet store for a new one.

While I was looking at bird toys, I also decided to get Yazzie a mirror with beads on it. My Mother had a parakeet that loved its mirror, and I thought about what a fine parakeet pal I would be to buy one for Yazzie.

So I took new bell and mirror home and put them in her cage, expecting to be rewarded for my generosity with a happy parakeet.

Wrong.