This is this week’s question of the week over at WAHM bloggers. I thought, great, an easy one. I know how I measure success, right? I DO know how I measure success, don’t I? I mean, success is… uh oh. I DON’T know how I measure success. Rats. Another week of introspection required to answer the question.

So, I think that the easy answer for me would be “success is fulfilling God’s purpose for my life”. Well, that’s great, but how do I measure that? At the end of the day, how do I know whether today was successful, or not?

At the end of the day, I should ask myself “Today, did I love God to the best of my ability and show that by my actions? And did I love my fellow man (and myself) to the best of my ability and show it by my actions?” If I can answer “yes” to both, that’s a successful day.

So, what does that look like? How does that figure in with my day to day life? When my children had questions, did I answer them and pay attention to them, or did I decide that my blog/Yahoo answers/my email/etc. was more important? Did I make food choices that help me to be healthier and more productive, or did I decide that I just had to have another piece of birthday cake? Did I use my blog or emails to communicate to others in a way that helps them or did I just waste their time? Did I greet my husband in a loving manner with appreciation for all he’s done, or did I greet him with a list of complaints? Did I try to keep my house so that I would feel happy to open my doors to provide hospitality, or did I become ensnared in perfectionistic tendencies that tell me nothing is ever good enough?

Deep down, I think we all know when we’re successful. We know when we’ve had that day that just feels great, when all is right with the world, and we know when we’ve fallen short. Even if we never take the time to define what success means to us, we know how it feels (and we know how failure feels, too). But sometimes it’s good to sit down for a minute and take the time to figure out what measuring stick we’re using. Are we trying to live up to our own expectations, or are we just trying to make others happy?

What do you think– how do you define success?