When You Don’t Have to Chase Anymore

How do you define success in life?

View all responses

(Photo from a windstorm that passed through in June 2026.)

When I was younger, I thought success meant making a lot of money and moving up in the world. Coming from a family that didn’t have much, that made sense.

Now I think it means finding your happiness, whatever that is.

When I try to think of a moment that felt like success, it’s hard, because it isn’t one moment. It’s that I don’t really have to reach for anything anymore. I’m happy with what I have.

I might be mixing success and wisdom together. The more you know about yourself, the more content you become, with material things and also with your ideals, the things you want changed in the world or in your own little corner of it. The problem with chasing those ideals is that once you reach them, they often aren’t what you thought they’d be. So you change them. Or the rules change once you get there, and you have to come up with something new.

So maybe that’s it. Success is when you don’t have to chase anything anymore.

/// Listening to: ///

“Another Life” by Jordy Medina