We can think of the times–perhaps only yesterday–when we listened to a friend in need, or finished a task that was nagging at us.

Maybe we made an
appointment to begin a project we’ve been putting off.

Success is taking
positive action, nothing more.

In our youth many of us were taught that
success only came in certain shapes and sizes. And we felt like failures.

We need new definitions; it’s time to discard the old.

- unattributed

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Success

He has achieved success
who has lived well,
laughed often, and loved much;

who has enjoyed the trust of
pure women,

the respect of intelligent men and
the love of little children;

who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;

who has left the world better than he found it
whether by an improved poppy,
a perfect poem or a rescued soul;

who has never lacked appreciation of Earth’s beauty
or failed to express it;

who has always looked for the best in others and
given them the best he had;

whose life was an inspiration;
whose memory a benediction.

–1904 Bessie Anderson Stanley*

*  “Success” was written as the winning entry in a contest run by Brown Book Magazine in 1904. Bessie won a cash prize of $250 which paid off the mortgage on the house, among other things. It was included in Bartlett’s Book of Quotations for decades, and if you can find an old edition from the 30’s or 40’s, it should be in there. They dropped it, I think in the 60’s, but I don’t know why.

The family isn’t sure how the poem got mangled and attributed to Emerson, but it was further confused by Ann Landers and her sister Abby. Ann Landers used to (mis)quote it all the time and cite Emerson as the source. My great-uncle Art, a retired federal judge who died last March, and she had a decade-long correspondence as he argued for a public correction. She finally conceded and in her book, The Ann Landers Encyclopedia, prints the whole story.

~~Bethanne Larson, a granddaughter of Bessie Stanley

________________________

Success isn’t measured by the position you reach in life;
it’s measured by the obstacles you overcome.

Booker T. Washington

________________________

Source:  www.livinglifefully.com