The main reason most people never achieve the level of success that they are worthy of is because too many of us are looking at the wrong measures. We are told every day about the things we should be striving for, the things that should be important to us. We are flooded with messages of all kinds daily, even hourly in some cases. Then we become down on ourselves if we aren’t driving a new BMW, living in a 5000 square foot house and we don’t have 15 million dollars in the bank.

Don’t misunderstand me. There is nothing wrong with having nice things in your life. When they are God given and a result of your obedience to His plan for your life, then they are well deserved. But when we seek these things as a measure of our worth and value; when they become a measure of our success, then we have lost all perspective.

There are many more effective ways to measure your success. Here are just a few:

• How many people did you help today?
• How much time did you spend with your spouse or children today?
• How many strangers did you encourage?
• How much time did you spend growing closer to God?
• You can add your own…

The point is, don’t get caught up in trying to measure yourself against a world that doesn’t know what is truly important.

If you are seeking God’s will for your life, success is already yours. If you are constantly striving to do the next right thing, you will have many good things in your life. If you learn to fill other peoples needs, then your needs and wants will also be fulfilled. The thing to remember is that many times, God’s plans are much different for us than what we think they should be. The key is to trust and know that learning to measure your success by standards other than God’s will never bring you happiness. Real success though is a path to a lifetime of satisfaction.

Have you thought about this question? If not then you should. For many people success is defined as having a nice car, big house and wad of money. Is that success for you? Is that what you are chasing? I know that it is easy to get caught up in the materialistic merry-go-round that so many people are on. We are fed an almost continual message of what we should want.

Most people who have chased these material “successes” will tell you that they don’t fill that emptiness inside. All they do is make you want more and more of them. It becomes a never-ending cycle. You get caught up in your pursuit of materials and when you get what you thought you wanted, you realize that it wasn’t what you wanted.

Instead, I propose that you seek true success. Spiritual success! This type of success will fill the void that we all have. It will make your life more fulfilling and your relationships with everyone around you better and stronger. As you work on your spirituality more, you will also see that the material stuff will come also (but it won’t be nearly as important to you). You will lead a successful life and you will be better equipped to help others do the same.