The mark of success?

A question which has been plaguing me for quite some time now is: "What does it mean to be successful?" This, however, brings about more questions such as: "How does one measure success?"; "What does one have to do to become successful?"

Oh man! I really put my foot in it today. I have thought and pondered upon this question for quite some time now. How does one know whether they are a success or not?

The Oxford dictionary defines sucess as:
"success
• noun 1 the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. 2 the attainment of fame, wealth, or social status. 3 a person or thing that achieves success.
— ORIGIN Latin successus, from succedere ‘come close after’."

Ok; Looking at this definition, I think I am approaching this topic wrong. If one measures success by bank balances and worldly possessions then I am definitely out of the running as far as being a success is concerned and this does not sit well with me as I cannot see my life as being a failure. With this in mind; "What classifies a person as being a success?"

Through my thought process and pondering, I have come to the conclusion that "PERSONAL SUCCESS" is relative. What one person defines as personal success is not neccessarily agreed upon by another. This is determined by our values and upbringing. To me being a success is a many faceted state of being, made up of different yet interlinked parameters. It is personal and relative only to me. We cannot determine our success by benchmarking ourselves against others. By doing so the parameters by which we measure personal success change. It is far easier to monitor other people and their success or failure than to monitor ourselves. By monitoring ourselves we have to do lots of introspection and getting to know ourselves. This is a difficult thing to do as it opens us up to our failures and shortcomings. In the world we live in, failure is frowned upon. All you have to do is stand at the side of a field where a group of 8 year olds are playing football (soccer) and watch the reactions of the coach and parents when one of the players or teams do not perform to their liking. The abhorance of failure is planted in our psychi at a very tender age, so it is no wonder that we fear failure.

We are all individuals and as such, we have to set our own parameters against which we measure ourselves. We need to understand that failure is not a bad thing if we take the experience to learn and grow from it. What we need to do is set goals for ourselves and upon achieving them mark them down as success; whether this be monetary, physical, emotional, marital or spiritual. We can only measure our personal success using ourselves as a benchmark. To do otherwise is folly. I may not have answered all the questions I started with, but I realise that only I can determine whether I am a success or not. My thoughts and actions determine who I am and this in turn determines how I handle success OR failure.