Thread: Secrets to a Successful Life

I know someone will ask so here is a brief meaning...

Success: attaining a positive personal achievement

A newborn baby; posit the wisdom or sage advice that would be forthcoming from this young individual if he/she was able to tell about the secret to living. Perhaps the answer might be along the lines of 'see teat and suck it'. Usually though, it's been my experience that secrets about successful living are passed down, not up. Although there are exceptions no doubt.

Should we heed someone's secret to life or shove it aside to find things out for ourselves? I'll give an example and tell me what you think. My since departed father told me once that the secret to living successfully in the real world(post education) was to get out of the high school mode of thinking as soon as you can. OK, I was in high school at the time so I thought he might have had too much to drink that night. However I heeded that advice but I'm not sure if I did it consciously or not. It worked for me. Are secrets to living coincidental with age? IOW some secrets only mean something when you are old enough to understand them.

I think there are some 'secrets' or gems of wisdom which only somebody of a certain age will naturally be able to understand or relate to.

But If a younger person has empathy with an older person then they should be able to put themselves in that position and understand the 'secret' or wisdom that is usually thought to be relevant only to an older generation.

It dosen;t happen question for you. Wisdom from experience accumulated through the long years is not easily downloaded to busy ears( as in the young ). This older wisdom strikes young people as not being applicable to their projected way through life.

It's as if an early indocrination of the very young may work, imparting some of lifes skills and aquired knowledge at this time. But during and after Puberty put your head in a bucket and scream.

There are exceptions. Serious minded Adolescents, if advised by a respected elder, and must be respected, than the input could have positive benefits.

But yes, I agree. Some age is required before the penny drops and reality kicks in. The light comes on. The revelation is made.

Babies are born almost like a clear slate. Just a little genetic instinct and insight comes with them. Survival mode. So on this clear slate their story of Life begins. Rightfully so. The same format and guidelines that have been the mainstay of routine education may have undergone drastic revision because of changed conditions. Who then will indoctrinate this child? And what with? westwind.

Originally Posted by westwind

Babies are born almost like a clear slate. Just a little genetic instinct and insight comes with them. Survival mode. So on this clear slate their story of Life begins. Rightfully so. The same format and guidelines that have been the mainstay of routine education may have undergone drastic revision because of changed conditions. Who then will indoctrinate this child? And what with? westwind.

Brings to mind the concept of being as an uncarved block... do not let craftsmen leave there mark upon your being, do not let them grafitti characters into your natural state. Unless ofcourse you wish to be a tool for them to use.

It looks like this has been said already in some sense. The secrets are secrets not because people keep them from each other but because they keep themselves secret. I actually have a short story on this that I'll put on my webpage once it's revamped. Probably not any time soon...

This is something I love about martial arts. Everyone is ADD about it and wants the best style, the most effective, or most artistic or whatever. They never stick with anything long enough to find the secrets... which generally lead to the conclusions that they are all effective and beautiful. But again, if I just told someone that they'd think I was some peace loving hippy who doesn't know a punch from a flower. And I would have to agree, and then the secret is kept.

Better yet, one should think how to influence the discovery of secrets, rather than teach the secrets directly. That's the secret.

Do these secrets to a succsessful life centre around being "fit for purpose". in the first place.? Aman with no arms cannot accept Natures Gifts. Or another persons Gifts.

So there is criteria.

Can one have a mentally successful Life? Without the physical?

Who are we to worry about such things? Having a successful Life should be at the bottom of the pile.

A useful Life? westwind.

To succed: to follow on from, come next, take the place already filled, come by inheritance.
Have succes, prosper.

It's apt that the OP speaks about learning from fathers as success's primary meaning is in the sense of 'i'm next in succession'. Your father has secrets and as part of your inheritance you are next in succesion to recieve those secrets.

So in a sense it seems that the concept of being successful is 'following in the footspteps of'...

So what if somebody is a total pioneer? what if they are a complete maverick and achieve things that nobody has ever achieved before... in this case are they successful? but who have they succeeded?

Hopefully one of you will have an answer for me in the succeeding post.

For a moment question for you I thought you had slipped off the rails. However my second take assured me that you have just approached the OP with an added dimension.

Yep, mavericks succeed all the time. Just because they have the advantage of being mavericks. Maybe their succession is from further back in the ancestoral connection. I guess we have, in our genetic Family, someone who has had a great deal of success. I'm a firm believer that ancestors play within our present existance. westwind.

Originally Posted by zinjanthropos

I know someone will ask so here is a brief meaning...

Success: attaining a positive personal achievement

A newborn baby; posit the wisdom or sage advice that would be forthcoming from this young individual if he/she was able to tell about the secret to living. Perhaps the answer might be along the lines of 'see teat and suck it'. Usually though, it's been my experience that secrets about successful living are passed down, not up. Although there are exceptions no doubt.

Should we heed someone's secret to life or shove it aside to find things out for ourselves? I'll give an example and tell me what you think. My since departed father told me once that the secret to living successfully in the real world(post education) was to get out of the high school mode of thinking as soon as you can. OK, I was in high school at the time so I thought he might have had too much to drink that night. However I heeded that advice but I'm not sure if I did it consciously or not. It worked for me. Are secrets to living coincidental with age? IOW some secrets only mean something when you are old enough to understand them.

I'd like to think having a long healthy life doing interesting things will be personally successful to you. But if you want others to think you are being successful in life you will have to work a bit more out of your comfort zone, find things you can be passionate about and then go for it anyway you can. Other than that keep it simple.

I definitely have some kind of rails stretching out in front of me... where they lead I do not know.

A succession of tracks for me to proceed successfully along after the one I suceeded and before my successor.

Who knows who built the successive rails on which I now succeed?

How long since this succession of rails were successfully traversed?

How long until my sucessor, successfully succeeds?

Reaching the end of the track, this is the way of success.

Some definitions that I thought might be of interest:

Dictionary:
Definition of suc-
prefix

variant spelling of sub, assimilated before c (as in succeed, succussion).


Cede: v.t give up, grant, admit, surrender. F ceder, or F,L cedere yeild.

cess: 1. n. (india, sc., ir., etc.) tax rate. [prop. sess for obs. asses n: see asses
2. n. (Ir) Bad~ to, may evil befall. [preh. f. prec.]

Sub:

sub = under, beneath, below
subscripsit = he/she undersigned
subscriptus = undersigned
subsequentis = following, subsequent
subsignatum = marked or signed below
subsignavit = he/she marked (signed) below

verb (subs, subbing, subbed) [with object]

1 replace or be replaced; substitute: he got a lot of applause when he was subbed [no object]: he subbed for Armstrong at some gigs

2 British lend or advance a sum to (someone) against expected income: who’ll sub me till Thursday?

3 subedit: his copy was mercilessly subbed and rewritten



Definition of succeed
verb

• 1 [no object] achieve the desired aim or result: he succeeded in winning a pardon a mission which could not possibly succeed
• attain fame, wealth, or social status: the management and business skills you need to succeed

• 2 [with object] take over a throne, office, or other position from: he would succeed Hawke as Prime Minister
• [no object] become the new rightful holder of an office, title, or property: he succeeded to his father’s kingdom
• come after and take the place of: her embarrassment was succeeded by fear

Definition of success
noun

[mass noun]

• 1the accomplishment of an aim or purpose: the president had some success in restoring confidence
• the attainment of fame, wealth, or social status: the success of his play
• [count noun] a person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains fame, wealth, etc.: to judge from league tables, the school is a success I must make a success of my business

• 2 archaic the good or bad outcome of an undertaking: the good or ill success of their maritime enterprises

Origin: mid 16th century: from Latin successus, from the verb succedere 'come close after' (see succeed)





Just looking at the word success and it's related words one get a sense of a cycle and a continuity... somebody aspiring to take a higher position, sombody else giving way, ceeding to the successor and so on.

Which is why I was thinking 'what if somebody has attained their dreams, but they have done it in a way that nobody has ever done before, then they wouldn't have succeeded anybody... so are they really successful? Succeeding seems to imply following a path that you have found yourself on...

This sounds crazy I know... but 'suc' means before or under, and 'cess' seems to mean something like 'curse' or 'evil befall'.


Therefore in a literal sense, success means 'under a curse of evil'...?


Which I suppose makes some sense if you think of evil as selfishness and good as altruism.


Sorry, i'm interested in words lately and now you all have to suffer the results of my research.

Originally Posted by question for you

It's apt that the OP speaks about learning from fathers as success's primary meaning is in the sense of 'i'm next in succession'. Your father has secrets and as part of your inheritance you are next in succesion to recieve those secrets.

So in a sense it seems that the concept of being successful is 'following in the footsteps of'...

So what if somebody is a total pioneer? what if they are a complete maverick and achieve things that nobody has ever achieved before... in this case are they successful? but who have they succeeded?

If you can break the mould then success may be a possibility. A social worker once told me about a family living on welfare, unambitious, unemployed, uninspired and content to live on the public dole. No surprise there until she said that there are 3 generations of this family all living in the same housing project. Perhaps this is a success story amongst welfare recipients, success meaning different things to a variety of people. I asked her if anyone from the family had ever got away from this lifestyle. She said there was one that became an electrician for a local utility, lives in a middle class neighborhood but doesn't contact his family anymore.

So to be successful it appears that success may not be restricted to gaining wealth or status. It may be that contentment could be used as a measuring stick for success. Perhaps there's a complete set of conditions one must have to be truly successful.

Originally Posted by zinjanthropos

A social worker once told me about a family living on welfare, unambitious, unemployed, uninspired and content to live on the public dole. No surprise there until she said that there are 3 generations of this family all living in the same housing project. Perhaps this is a success story amongst welfare recipients, success meaning different things to a variety of people. I asked her if anyone from the family had ever got away from this lifestyle. She said there was one that became an electrician for a local utility, lives in a middle class neighborhood but doesn't contact his family anymore..

What a lovely social worker, isn't there confidentiality rules or something?
But that is a story where one generation is successfully suceeded by a successor, which is then succeeded by a successor in succession.

It would be interesting to know if the one who broke away from the 'succycle' was anymore content with his life.

Originally Posted by zinjanthropos

So to be successful it appears that success may not be restricted to gaining wealth or status. It may be that contentment could be used as a measuring stick for success. Perhaps there's a complete set of conditions one must have to be truly successful.

Hmmm... anybody can be successful, if they keep their expectations low enough.

Originally Posted by question for you

Hmmm... anybody can be successful, if they keep their expectations low enough.

How true. I wonder how many very successful people don't feel successful because of their high expectations?

Originally Posted by arKane

Originally Posted by question for you

Hmmm... anybody can be successful, if they keep their expectations low enough.

How true. I wonder how many very successful people don't feel successful because of their high expectations?

If I wanted to kill myself and managed to do it, success? Perhaps personal achievement is an arbitrary thing. Suicide however would not qualify as a secret to success in life, at least in my books. I suppose success is reached when you are judged to be so by a jury of your peers. Then again the criteria would not be impartial, as each of us has their own definition of success. I see nothing wrong with divulging a secret to success if it worked for you. The hope is that some other person may take your advice and have it benefit them the same way it did for you.