As a business owner with an incredible drive to succeed, it is very easy to be consumed with my goals, needs, dreams, life, and checking off my to-do list. The temptation of focusing on myself and what I need to accomplish to become “successful” is very present in my life.
This quote is a great reminder of what being truly successful really means. While I think that wanting to achieve more and reach for the stars is not a bad desire, I believe that true success is far deeper than just “making it to the top,” amassing money, material possessions, reaching a particular status, or simply retiring to live a comfortable life. The reality is that all of these things will pass away! Life is a vapor, and everything you work so hard today for can easily go away tomorrow. I believe that the meaning of true success is to use your talents, gifts, and material possessions with the ultimate purpose of touching and changing someone else’s life. It is the giving of oneself and one’s time to touch another person’s life that brings true fulfillment.
The act of loving someone can be shown in so many different ways. It can be shown by simply helping an elderly person with their grocery bags, paying for a stranger’s lunch, leaving a very generous tip, stopping for a moment on your busy day to genuinely listen to someone’s heart, or showing patience and grace when someone messes up (this is especially useful if you’re married or have children!), etc., etc.!
As you are pursuing your goals and achieving your dreams, don’t forget to live a selfless live where the growth of others is just as important as your own growth.
Today, I encourage you to think deeply on ways you can bless and touch the lives of others. Remember, people will never forget how you made them feel.
How do you want to be remembered? I know I want to be known as someone who loved deeply and encouraged and helped other to achieve their dreams as if they were my own.
“But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:17-18