Success is not a point in time where I do a set of actions and achieve it.

Success is a constant state of being. I could have been successful in the past and be successful in the future, but unsuccessful in the moment I am thinking about my past success and visualizing my future success.

If I am doing that, I’m likely in a state of being that is unsuccessful, as I’m searching for success. If I am searching for success, I do not currently have it, making me unsuccessful despite all the past success I might have had.

At each point in my life, I am different than I was at previous times. External experiences change my internal world, and my internal world changes how I experience the external world. Because there is so much entropy in the external world, so much randomness and chaos, things are constantly shifting both around me and within me.

Each new self has different attributes than the previous self. Each new self can be successful or unsuccessful. It’s a state of being.

So how do I be successful? Well, primarily it is aligning my actions with my thoughts. This is what I call integrity, being who I say I am. When I am not doing what I tell myself I need to do or being the person I tell myself I am, I do not look at myself as successful, despite past successes I might have. This is different from achievement, which is just the external outcome. I can achieve things and still feel unsuccessful if I compromised my integrity along the way.