Measure of Success

"The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it's the same problem you had last year."
~ John Foster Dulles

I once asked my mother-in-law how things were going. Her response? "Same shit, different pile." I remembered that feeling well. I was so relieved to have stepped out of that life and into one that didn't repeat the same cycles.

I have talked with people about their jobs. I have heard the same stories with different names and faces many times over. Different factors at play but it felt like an endless repetition of the same old things. Time and time again.

I've made a few bold moves when it comes to destructive cycles within my world. I've packed up and moved literally and figuratively many times when the same problems kept recycling themselves back into my life. 

A person has the opportunity to do a little housekeeping with each move. I don't like to bring too much baggage from the past along with me. I prefer to pack up the lessons and leave the heart ache behind. It isn't that simple but it comes in time.

I think that is why I look back at 'A Year Ago Today' from time to time. I will scan the archives of my blog or go back into my journals to see where I was a year (or longer) ago and measure my progress. I like to utilize my past as a measuring stick and define myself accordingly.

When things aren't right in my world I tend to shake it up a little. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. This past year? It worked! 

Using 'A Year Ago Today' as my measuring tool, I would say the year was a success! 

P.S. A year ago, I wrote this blog: http://colleen-lifeasiknowit.blogspot.ca/2012/08/this-holidaying-business-is-exhausting.html . Boy!! Did I learn my lesson from that holiday. This year's holiday was everything that one wasn't.