On Success

This morning I was meditating on a definition of success that is simply this: “Success is obedience to the call.”

For awhile now, I’ve been mulling over a definition of success that feels good to me. I have spent so long in the world of recognized achievement, chasing goals that others had set for me, and never really questioning whether my own internal compass pointed me in that direction at all. 

What I know now is this: I am a writer. I have worked so hard for years now to internalize deeply that this is part of my identity. I am a writer, creative, poet, maker, and artist – what I do to pay my bills does not define me. Neither does my art define me, because then I will start to hold markers of “success” like being on the NYT best-seller list as goals, and honestly, that label is just as meaningless as being on the Forbes 30 under 30 list. I don’t hold success in that sense in such high regard. And I think seeing that as the pinnacle of success has been stultifying my own growth for far too long.

“Success is obedience to the call.”

That’s it. I don’t need to top any charts, win a Pulitzer for my work, or even win the Nobel Prize in literature to be a success at my writing. By the world’s standards, I don’t even need to be “the best” at what I do. No one has to recognize my obedience to the calling in order for me to pursue it. And no one has to applaud me in order for my creative work to have meaning and significance. My calling comes from God, and I need only be obedient to succeed in my creative work. I create because I am called to do so. Sure, it would be nice to have 5M+ Instagram followers and people getting tattoos of my poems on their bodies, but even if that never happens, or even if it does, I still want to define success as obedience to the call placed on my life. That isn’t changing. That I can work towards. That is a north star that won’t move. And that is a way to define success on my own terms. Hallelu.

I know that there’s a reason I have been planted where I am in life, and the growth ahead of me is incredibly possible. The sermon at my church yesterday was on going up to possess the land that God has already called me to possess – I need only wear my crown, since it has already been paid for.

I’m still scared, but I’m ready. I feel alive.