Definition of Success

What is success? Our society has set a standard for success in the financial arena, which typically stems from the academic world. While this holds legitimacy, I feel like this definition is narrow-minded. There is much more to life than having the traditional 1950's American dream (or today's version). We don't need a house that's too big for our family. We don't need more cars than drivers. We don't need excess. We don't need to swim in money. We don't need to stomp out all competition to get to the highest position in our company's payroll.  We don't need to beat up the little guy to land on top. We don't need to be at work more than home just to get ahead in our career. There are more important things that define our success.

If these things don't define our success though, what does? In my opinion, success can be measured in many other ways and is often overlooked in these areas.  Success can be achieved by overcoming hard times such as cancer, financial trouble, a fight, etc. Success can lie in our spiritual lives through achieving heaven or some higher level of love for God.  For those who have families, success would lie in having a happy home (or for the Monica Geller in some of us: a clean home). The definition of success ranges from person to person, occupation to occupation, religion to religion, whatever arena of one's life differs from another's.

Is there a universal definition of success then? Is it only relative person to person? I don't think so. I think success accomplishes a goal or overcome difficulties. What do you think success is? Comment below!