Into the Fire

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Passionate: right or wrong. Writes love stories with a passion. Raw Romantic Redemptive

Success?

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The obvious quest for success seems to be to make a lot of money and/or to gain notoriety and/or respect and/or fill-in-the-blank. Does it not? 

Except the real meaning of "success" is perhaps as individual as the people seeking after it. First, a personal definition must be decided upon by the person on the quest for it. Second, after a period of time, the decision as to potential modification of that initial definition must be ascertained. Third, any modification must be interfaced with the original plan or hope. Fourth, absolute reality – good, bad, or indifferent must be applied. 

This is not a post defining success, criticizing success, or pretending to understand the successes of some over others. I would enjoy hearing your thoughts regarding actual success. 

 

Father, every good and perfect gift comes from you. Period. We must strive for obedience which you then follow with all sorts of blessings. Thank you is never enough. Please continue to help me to be the one you designed me to be. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

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2 responses to “Success?”

  1. Brenda S. Anderson Avatar
    Brenda S. Anderson

    Success – such a subjective word!
    For me, there are different kinds of success.
    Am I being obedient to God when writing (or not writing), then that’s success.
    I set a goal a number of years back to be able to make my monthly car payment with my royalties. I’ve achieved that times two, often more, so I’d call that success.
    Readership is not the typical Christian fiction reader–maybe that wasn’t a goal, but I’m thrilled with that.
    And those atypical readers are actually liking what they read! Ratings on Amazon are all 4.6+. I even have a book closing in on 1000 reviews. That means well over 1000 people have read that book. I’d call that success.
    On the other hand, I haven’t had success in the traditional vein. Agents wanted me to fit in more, to write cookie cutter romance, which I could not–would not–do. And I’ve had trad publishers request my work, have had nice comments from the editors, but always an excuse not to pursue beyond the initial request.
    Other than the ACFW Genesis contest, in which one of my romance novels was a finalist (ironically, my romance novels are my worst selling books…), I haven’t fared well in contests.
    Weighing all the above, I’ll take the successes!

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  2. Nicole Petrino-Salter Avatar
    Nicole Petrino-Salter

    Those examples sound like an awful lot of success to me! Praise the Lord! Thank you, Bren, for sharing them. I love it!
    Definitely agree: obedience to God is key to a real success.
    And also agree: oh so subjective.

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