What If Success Looks Nothing Like What Others Expected?
Updated: Sep 1
Recently, I read another book about art, and one chapter focused on defining success. It opened my eyes and changed the way I evaluate my life and ministry.
If you have been wondering whether you are successful at this stage of your life—and you need courage to continue on your path—today’s reflection is for you.
When the Meaning of Success Changes
The author described how, as a young adult, he defined success by his accomplishments as an art entrepreneur. He built a multimillion-dollar company, but despite appearing successful to others, he was deeply unhappy. He was accountable to a board of directors and investors, and the financial obligations weighed heavily on him.
Over time, he realized that his understanding of success had changed. He eventually walked away from his prominent position, started a new art business using his own capital, and built a family. Today, he defines success less by the size of his company and more by the life that brings him meaning and fulfilment.
The chapter included several questions that stayed with me:
If you had 60 healthy days left, what would you do with those remaining days?
What do you worry about most?
What needs to change?
What will you regret not getting done?
I read the questions, reflected on them carefully, and was surprised by what I discovered.
Am I Already Where I Want to Be?
For some time, I had been questioning and evaluating different areas of my life. Yet when I answered these questions honestly, my eyes were opened to something I had overlooked:
I am exactly where I want to be.
During my ongoing artistic and introspective journey, I had become so focused on examining individual parts of my life that I lost sight of the bigger picture. When I stepped back and looked at my life as a whole, I realized that the reflective and creative way I live has helped me remain connected to what matters most.
I now consider that a form of success.
My mother and many well-meaning friends might be surprised to hear me describe my life this way. I am in my mid-forties, single, serving in missions, without significant savings or a house of my own, and investing much of my time in developing my artistic gifts.
By conventional standards, my lifestyle may appear uncertain, impractical, or unsuccessful.
Yet while answering the questions from the book, I realized that I am living the life I hoped to live twenty years ago. That desire has remained with me throughout sixteen years of full-time ministry in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
If I had only sixty healthy days left, there are a few things I would still like to do. However, I would not radically change the way I live. I would continue serving, creating, reflecting, sharing my faith, and taking each day as it comes. That realization surprised me.
Success Without Certainty
I do not have significant savings. I do not own a house. I do not have a completely reliable source of income. I am not married, I do not have children, and I am not pastoring a church.
I sometimes worry about my future.
Nevertheless, I have chosen to walk by faith—one step at a time—whether I have another sixty days or sixty years ahead of me. That decision makes me feel content, courageous, and successful.
I am not where my parents imagined I would be. I am not necessarily where my friends would like to see me or where the world expects someone my age to be.
But I am where I believe God has called me to be, doing what I love and living from the core of who He created me to be.
How can I call that success?
Redefining Success Through Faith
For me, success means being at the center of God’s will for my life. To the best of my understanding and ability, I believe that is where I am in this season.
Being in God’s will does not mean that everything is certain, comfortable, or easy. It does not remove questions about the future. Instead, it gives me the courage to continue without having every answer.
I want to live and share my faith in Christ from the deepest part of who my heavenly Father created me to be. That is how I define success.
It takes faith and courage to follow your own God-given path when it does not resemble the life others expected you to build. Sometimes success is not reaching a position that impresses people. Sometimes it is recognizing that you are already living faithfully in the place where God has planted you.
Who Is Defining Your Success?
Take some time to reflect on the questions from today’s post:
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