Conference turris::womannotes-v2

    If I can't feel successful right now, I probably never will.
    
    --DE
    

    Success, to me, is achieving my goals, whether short-term
    or longterm. If i've met my goals, I've achieved success.
    
    pat

    When I was growing up, success was having enough money that I
    didn't live in fear of the next economic downturn that would force
    borderline areas like the one I grew up in into another
    depression. 
    
    Later, success meant getting through college, having a job that
    didn't require lots of sweat and cause early arthritis, having
    enough money to buy a nice house and take vacations to DisneyWorld
    or even Europe. 
    
    Well, I've achieved all that, and more.  And I'm a little at a
    loss for what to do next.  I know how Alexander the Great felt
    when he had conquered the whole known world before he was 30.
    What do you do for an encore? 
    
    --bonnie

    I guess success is relative. I've raised a son since he was 15 years
    old. I was spared (so far) some of the dreaded inevitablities that
    have occurred in the lives of some other singles parent's lives
    that I know of. Now he's 20 years old, and although he sometimes
    gets on my LAST nerve, I guess I can say that's been my greatest
    triumph.
    
    I set goals for myself - some small and immediate, then others that
    are long range plans. I've found that the less I say about my goals
    to someone else, the more I tend to stick to them. (Others always
    seem to know what's best for you). I also find that monetary goals
    always seem to become secondary to me - although that too is important,
    because I find things to go after that fulfill and enrich me more
    than money will.
    
    I have dreams like everyone else. And as long as I'm happy in my
    endevors, everything else will fall into place.

    Success in the past was surviving...
    
    In order to feel successful now I had to get my head on straight...
    I've done that to my satisfaction...
    
    And now success is being happy with myself, a goal that wasn't that
    difficult to reach, I only wish I had figured it out sooner!
    

    Short term success for me means doing exceptionally well at the
    things I attempt.  F'rinstance, after two years of putzing around
    in college, I finally got my act together and got two four-oh's
    in a row.  (What a feeling!)  Success is being the best and brightest
    in whatever field I choose...
    
    Long term success means acheiving the goals I set for myself.  My
    goals right now are simple to define, more complicated to achieve...I
    want to be rich and I want to have children.  Not necessarily in
    that order.  Right now I feel that when I have those two things,
    my life will be fufilled  when I achieve those...that's success.
    
    Diana (who could make it through life being happy without being
           rich, but not without having children.)

    "Success" is a process (to me), not a destination.  I guess I am
    reasonably successful in my own process.  There were specific things
    that were important to me for me to feel successful, and I have
    managed to achieve a good number of them (mostly due to hard work,
    sacrifices, etc. - the usual way; most things wouldn't mean as much
    if someone suddenly handed them to you with no work on your part,
    right?).  Specific things were to finish my master's degree, travel
    to the Galapagos Islands and to Hong Kong, be recognized for my
    technical contributions at work, bake challah that my family likes,
    and learn to bake croissants.  There are other things, too, that
    I haven't done yet, and no doubt even more that I haven't thought
    of yet.  It makes me sad when people imply that I must be wealthy
    because I have traveled, for example, when they don't realize that
    ten years ago I could barely afford my apartment, and can only travel
    now because it is important enough to me that I live in a very small
    and inexpensive place and drive a very old car to conserve money
    for things that are more important to my own happiness; I guess
    I feel they the implication is that I didn't earn what successes
    I have achieved, and I know better.  If I traveled somewhere on
    money I won in the state lottery (very unlikely, since I don't "throw
    away" money on lottery tickets; I've never purchased one and probably
    never will), it wouldn't mean nearly as much.
    
    Charlotte

Success means becoming the person I want to be, and loving that 
person wherever she is in the process. It means setting goals for 
myself and achieving those goals. It also means choosing work I like, 
and doing it very well. To take that one step further, finding work 
I love enough to do without pay, and then getting paid for it. 

Jenny

I don't think in terms of success. Sounds too external. 

When things 'are going wrong', I try to find out why. Find out how I
can correct them. Get back in balance.

I guess I'm not particularly goal-oriented; more process-oriented.
	Mez

    It's not "success" I want; it's contentment.  Well, contentment
    with what I have done, but with an eternal itch to do more...
    
    						Ann B.

    Success is fulfillment of dreams. Some of mine were owning my owne
    home, which I have done.  Having a son, I do. Having a good
    relationship.  I do.  Getting a good job. Half way there.  Finishing
    College.  That's going to take a while.  But I will. 
    
    I think success is continuing.  I will get to one point in my life
    that I think is were I want to be and I know that there will be
    something else that I must do.
    
    Success is happiness
    
    Denise

To me success means balancing all aspects of my life, along with
setting challenging but attainable goals, and achieving at least
some of them.

I do not believe the objective to be _arriving_ but rather how I
make my journey. 

Nancy (_whose_journey_sometimes_progresses_slowly_due_to_construction_)