Success is being recognized as an expert in your chosen field of endeavor. At least that’s one of my responses for defining success.

Another is that success is an intangible feeling that accompanies a sense of accomplishment…a job well done whether anyone else notices or just you.

A third definition of success is the ability to live comfortably within one’s means. How many million-dollar-plus lottery winners have lost it all because they couldn’t live within their means? They splurged or over-spent without thinking about stashing half the cash off the bat in retirement savings or some safe investment.

How do you define success?

A person can strive all their life pursuing an ideal that is unattainable but yet they believe it can be achieved. Is that person successful because they are passionate about their objective?

Consider a destitute person with an addiction to alcohol whose daily goal is to find enough cash to scrounge up a cheap bottle of wine and drink themselves into a state of oblivion. Is that person successful if they get the money and the bottle? Deep down, yes…if you believe success is achieving a goal. Some, however, would consider this person a failure for other reasons even though they succeed on a daily basis.

Let’s put it this way: If you are passionate about what you do–professionally or personally–and pursue that passion with purpose, you will be successful. You know what you want and how to get it. Those are important elements in defining success. Let’s leave it at that.