What is success?

Everybody defines success in different ways.

‘Baby sleep success’, for example. To one parent, it may mean baby sleeping from 7pm to 7am. However, for another (which is the parent I was with the Wee Man) success was more than 2 hours sleep in a row.

Or examinations success. The Other Half was amazed the other day when watching ‘Educating Essex’ to find that GCSE’s graded D to G are still considered a pass, and therefore a success in terms of school statistics. Apparently if you were to achieve the same in New Zealand, you would not be considered quite so successful…

A successful day for me at the moment is getting out of the house with both kids reasonably attired, and me not smelling (much) or looking like I’ve been dragged through a bush backwards (panda eyes, dishevelled clothing and the odd sticky out bit of hair at this point are acceptable).

Equally, when someone asks ‘is your blog successful’, then the answer may be different depending on your definition. Some see it as number of followers on twitter, or number of comments on your blog. Every day I am bombarded by emails and links to ‘increasing traffic to your log’, ‘boosting your presence’, and using ‘things with a variety of three letter acronyms to have a more successful blog’ (I’m not really sure what a lot of them are necessarily). Others define it as the number of freebies you are offered, or guest postings you are asked to do. In fact I’m sure the list of criteria for ‘success’ could probably go on and on.

Someone asked me the other day whether I consider my blog to be successful. I suppose, if you’re obsessed by statistics and followers, then its not as ‘successful’ as some. But there will always be bloggers with more or less followers than others. Since (especially at the moment with NaBloPoMo requiring a post a day!) I consider getting a post written and published to be a success, then yes, my blog is successful! It is nice to think that people actually read what I’m writing, and its always lovely to get comments and make new friends and acquaintances. But for me a big part of the enjoyment is actually in the writing, and I like the idea that one day, my Wee Man and Bubby D will be able to look back on this and see the early years of their lives unfolding through my words.

So if I’ve written, coherently, honestly, and happily, then I consider that to be a success, for me. If others enjoy it, and find it interesting or helpful too, then that’s a bonus!