A question of success

[dirtgirl]

As part of my ongoing third life crisis...who do you know when you are successful? Is it when you get the money, the status and all the trimmings or when you get peace of mind? How do we uncondition our conditioning about success versus failure? Doesn't it matter? What do others think?  

And as an aside, I've been reading a bit of Umberto Ecos' book, "Serendipities...Language and Lunacy" where he discusses the language and culture of secret and submersive socities, "amid the deepest shadows a society has been formed of new beings who know one another without having seen one another...This society takes the Jesuit rule blind obedience; from the masonry, the tests and the external ceremonies; from the Templars, the underground evocations and incredible audacity".  Reading that got me thinking about forums such as this!  Is the internet and those lurk in it's shadows members of a secret society?  

[Flashpoint]

 I'd like to say it's easy to know when you're successful.. it should be.  Reality certainly dictates otherwise. It seems to me that you can determine if you're successful by asking yourself two things:

1.) Are you happy where you are?
2.) Are you happy with where you're going?

 I'd say the second is *slightly* more important because that will normally dictate how one feels about the first.

 Of course this assumes that a person actually knows what does/will make them happy - that's where the real trouble begins.  Money, status, and expectations (both internal and external) are often the fastest way to cloud that particular issue.

--Matt

[luceluna]

Is the internet and those lurk in it's shadows members of a secret society?

moving past the grammatical errors in that quote ():

the internet isn't a place where i "lurk". i've met some of my nearest and dearest through it. and it allows me to communicate on levels with like-minded people that i can't easily find in "real life". it's such a big part of western society now, also, that it's not really "secret" anymore.

i wouldn't know most of the people on this board if it weren't for the internet

[dirtgirl]

I obviously have failed to communicate my point adequately here...