The Thing About Success

There are people so depressed that, for them, success is defined as simply being able to get out of bed in the morning and face another day.

There is a homeless man downtown for whom success is cashing in enough cans to be able to buy a small bottle of hooch that evening. And, in the rare but most successful of cases, still have enough change to get a cup of coffee in the morning.

My little girl defines success by being able to convince her parents to give her anything she wants (and she has more success than she reasonably should).

My point being that success is not something that can be objectively measured. How others count it does not matter. It is not linear. There is no recipe. And, in fact, there is no real definition or standard other than that which we define and set for ourselves.

Our days are made up of many minor (and sometimes large) successes and minor (and sometimes large) failures. And each day, each moment in fact, we get a clean slate to start anew. We could choose to celebrate the big victories by barely acknowledging them and the small ones with a full-blown parade. How we define it, how we measure it, and how we celebrate it, is up to us.

Success for me is publishing something that makes your day better, every day. If this connected with you, please consider a free will donation of any amount.

Apps That Stay: Notational Velocity

nvALT

Today marks a sort of unusual anniversary for me. It was the day that I discovered what remains my favorite application, on any platform, of all time — Notational Velocity. I first started using it on this date back in 2005 — 8 years ago.

In fact, I first wrote about it just a few days after I downloaded it. And I have continued to use it, every day, ever since. I now use nvALT, which is Brett Terpstra’s wonderful fork of the original that includes all sorts of handy extra features.

That said, the original version would still be plenty fine for me regardless. A really great app.

Ready

If you can dream — and not make dreams your master
If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same
– Rudyard Kipling, If

The GORUCK Challenge is likely the most physically difficult test most who face it will ever achieve. A team building event led by Special Forces veterans designed in part to simulate the sort of training and challenges they faced in their careers. You are required to wear a backpack — known as a "ruck" in military parlance— loaded with 6 bricks, a hydration bladder, and anything else one feels inclined to bring. In other words about 40-60 pounds. They advertise 8-10 hours over 15-20 miles. Every one I am aware of goes beyond that promise. They also advertise that they under-promise and over-deliver. Indeed.

I was supposed to take part in the Challenge last year but I broke two toes in training and had to simply shadow that class instead. I was really bummed at the time. Mainly because in the hour before I was injured was the first I had felt ready. And, this is the sort of event where the idea of ready has very deep and broad meanings.

The registration fee was transferable and I vowed to take part in the next one that was held here. That date is March 30th — less than a week from now. I met up earlier today for a practice ruck with some of my future class mates. We put in some good livin’ and started to really bond as a bunch. All of the months of training I have had leading up to this were put to the test. The running, the lifting, the dieting, and the sweat. Yet, even with all of that, today was the first time, this time, I finally felt what I was waiting to feel…

Ready.