Success can look and feel like a lot of things.  I, however, tend to narrowly define it. Winning the prize, getting the mention, having a Ph.D., owning a giant house, driving a nice car, being a New York Times bestselling author…those things all speak success to me. All the things listed are great and typically require work, but they are not necessarily fair ways to measure success.

A couple of months ago a local community hero passed away at 89. For more than 10 years preceding his death, Carlyle Whitelow could be found outside the Bridgewater Dairy Queen on Main Street waving at people on their morning commutes. Had I gotten the opportunity to talk to him, I would have asked how he measured success in his life.

Mr. Whitelow retired after a rewarding career of teaching and coaching. By all accounts, he was a gem of a human being. Though he had an accomplished career, I am willing to bet he saw success through a different lens. He was a stalwart supporter of his community and everyone in it. He genuinely loved people. That love led him to his daily post where he handed out as many smiles and waves as there were hearts and eyes to receive them.

I say Mr. Whitelow’s success had little to do with what he collected and everything to do with what he gave.. to his family, to his students and athletes, to his community, and daily to complete strangers passing by the Dairy Queen.  The totality of his successful life cannot be tangibly measured. It will serve us all well to remember his example.

As I look at success from all sides, I can’t avoid the word passion. It is a buzzword of sorts in modern culture. Words like purpose, calling, or dream are easily substituted. For me, how I measure success seems inextricably tied to those words.

I was thinking about how unprepared I feel to pursue my passion. I have best seller dreams and feel equipped with only crayons. Frustration and doubt rule many of my days. Some days I want to hide, or like in elementary school, just shout “psych” and run in the other direction. I want to boldly declare “Just kidding!”, my passion is now watching TV in pajamas. At that, I would be a raging overnight success.

In Gideon: Your Weakness. God’s Strength, a Bible study by Priscilla Shirer, she says “Disciplined runners consistently clear their heads and focus fully on the journey ahead… because their passion and zeal for the goal supersedes the strain. The goal beckons them onward. Passion doesn’t negate weariness; it just resolves to press beyond it.”

Priscilla reminds me that, whether I type words into fancy software or scribble words with fat crayons on manilla paper, chasing the dream with whatever I have at hand equals success. Giving of ourselves in the process, however shaky, is how we slowly meet our goals. Doubt may settle heavy.  Weariness from the hustle may threaten to overtake us. We succeed, though, when we keep moving forward…regardless of what that may look like to anyone else.

Mr. Whitelow’s passion was to love people. One very successful way he did that was to stand in front of Dairy Queen and wave. My question for you and for myself is what does our success look like on a daily basis? What do we need to resolve to press beyond? How can we condition ourselves to focus fully on the journey ahead?

Whatever your passion, what are you willing to give toward your success? It may be time. It may be resources. It may be, like in my case, words of encouragement on the internet to people you may never meet. The totality of our successful lives will also not be tangibly measured. So, let’s give ourselves grace when we are tempted to measure ourselves with accomplishments rather than the little things we give of ourselves daily.