A Different Way to Measure Success

Choose the delight of beauty.

The lilac-purple color peeking out from behind the rock was so beautiful I had to look to find out what it was.

A small grouping of phlox was blooming in the corner of my garden. I stooped down next to it, admiring its beauty. I even petted and talked to it, thanking it for growing and expressing itself so beautifully and completely.

And then it hit me. This plant was completely successful. You might think the plant had no choice but to be successful, but all living things have a choice.

This plant didn’t have to grow, but it did, and as a result, it became an integral part of an ecosystem while providing a stunning display of beauty as part of the package.

Sitting beside this humble plant, I asked myself, “What if providing beauty was a definition of success?”

It said “yes” as the wind ruffled its leaves.

As you can imagine, that delighted me because it meant the hours spent in the garden intending to make it more beautiful and providing more ways to see beauty were a completely successful day at work.

This meant I could choose to assist, create, and support beauty as my intent every day, and if I accomplished that in some small measure, I was successful.

Practically speaking, that meant keeping the house orderly, cleaning up after myself, and making sure our house was comfortable and beautiful—it was not just maintenance that took time I could use to be more successful, but success itself.

What if we make assisting, creating, and supporting beauty a necessary ingredient of success?

Would we create shopping centers with acres of parking with only a few trees and a smattering of flowers by the door?

Would we design buildings that are square blocks with a window or two that don’t even open?

Would we put junk in our yards and our woods? Would we create something to throw away?

What if everyone saw all those non-aware-of-beauty activities as the antithesis of success?

What if time spent creating in all art forms—to be part of the creation of beauty—meant that at the day’s end, we could say to ourselves, “This was a successful day!”

What would change?

Nature is successful in every measure of success. It does its job of providing us with a planet filled with water, air, and an infinite display of extraordinary beauty.

What if we stopped abusing it while trying to become successful?

What if we made all decisions based not only on how it affects others for seven generations but with an answer of “yes” to the question, “Is it beautiful?”

Wouldn’t life be filled with more mindfulness and kindness?

Wouldn’t there be less need for people to lie, cheat, be greedy, and choose violence as a solution?

Sometimes, there seems to be so much wrong in the world that we fall victim to the temptation to believe that we can’t do anything about it.

We don’t need to believe this. It’s not true. So, let’s prove it.

Knowing that beauty comes in many forms and depends on how one sees it, let’s start by being conscious of it.

Let’s imitate nature and ensure that everything we do contains an element of creating and providing equal beauty for everyone.

Let’s spend more time with nature. Let’s take our children into nature.

Let’s allow it to guide us into healing ourselves of the false identities of fear and greed and choosing beauty instead as the basis of our identity and as a key to a truly successful life.

Maybe choose to bloom beauty into, and as, your life. Here’s a book that might help.
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