Author Promotion, Authors, Inspiration

What Is Success? – Guest Post by Tina Frisco…

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We tend to see success as a realized goal, often overlooking the small successes that create the links in this chain. I write further on this subject in my article on The Story Reading Ape. Thank you to Chris Graham for hosting me ❤

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

Image courtesy of Lucie Stastkova

While writing the introduction to a fellow author’s book, I realized many of us view success as an end-product. We aspire, we strive and, if fortunate, we manifest. Only then do we feel gratified, overlooking all we accomplished in the process. In short, we fail ourselves.

If we become discouraged when met by an obstacle, we are not seeing that obstacle for what it truly is: a teacher. Obstacles not only teach us what does not work, but also challenge us to reach beyond our perceived limitations. Obstacles are opportunities to practice what we’ve learned, alter our approach, and move forward. This is success.

Being stuck in obsessive thought patterns, limiting beliefs, or anything that stops us short of reaching a goal can lead to wallowing in the past (nostalgia) and yearning for the future (desire). Turning inward and finding the embedded thoughts sabotaging our efforts…

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35 thoughts on “What Is Success? – Guest Post by Tina Frisco…”

  4. Hi ! I never normally comment on other people’s posts but I just came across your blog and I have to comment and tell you that I adore it! Your blog is so wonderful, I am so happy I just came across it. I am going to follow you right now so I can keep up to date with all of your posts; I look forward to your next ones! Keep up the great work (:

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    1. Thank you for the lovely comment, Aimee. You made my (rather hectic) day! Love your blog’s name. I appreciate the follow and have reciprocated. It’s a pleasure to meet you 🙂 ❤

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  5. Tina, I left comment at Chris’, but I’ll say it here again, you are an almighty wise one, and success should be measured by the increments we’ve put in along the way to the ultimate fruition. The journey is as important as the destination. ❤

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  7. I wondered where you’ve been recently. You must be soaking up wisdom! Thanks for sharing some with us. We all strive for success in some form or another and work ourselves to the bone to achieve it. And have we? hmmmm deep breath.

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    1. I was on a break preparing my first book for republication, Marsha. It took quite a bit longer than I’d anticipated. But guess what? I succeeded! And I felt success with each task I completed, from editing to formatting to creating the cover. It was grueling at times, but acknowledging each step in the process as a success is what kept me going. Nice to see you, my friend. Thanks for stopping by ❤

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      1. I wondered. You are so faithful and I love that, then you disappeared. I was worried that you might be sick. I’m glad you succeeded in finishing your book. It is a grueling task. I redid my book, So You Think You Can Blog? I have it with an editor right now. So I feel your pain. Have a great rest of the week, Tina. 🙂

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              1. Thanks, Tina. I was just chatting with Cathleen Townsend about her villain article. Her contention is that we often overlook our villains. I know I do. I have struggled over and over with the first page, and in my most recent rewrite I have killed a potentially great villain. Back to the drawing board. I tend to over complicate things.

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  8. Hey Tina,

    How are you doing? 🙂 I hope all is swell in the well of life and fine fortune, fine health and happiness prevail.

    Fresh from a book release you pen a piece to have us ponder and show gratitude for your wisdom. I always find your positivity so lifting Tina, your compassion and kindness so elevating and your sense of determination wilful and motivating.

    For the first time I notice the Bee bumbling on petal tips in your header photograph: who like me seems drawn into the heart of those beautiful flowers. The colouring is spectacular and I desperately want chance to see it through a Bee’s eyes as it busies about its business buzzing between flowers in a tireless journey for pollen 🙂 How appropriately the image fits with discussion on the nature of success and our personal measure of it 🙂

    I have one question to ask arising from your article, and that is, ‘would success ever taste quite so good if fear and failure were not an occasional bedfellow in our lives?’ I would not want to live without the emotional stimulus to be found at opposing ends of the one spectrum. The totality of life demands we fail so that we can learn, grow stronger, rise and advance.

    A last thought regarding success. I don’t have a very good memory of long ago but I recall childhood notions of wanting to grow up and become all sorts of things: from a fireman to a train-driver and almost everything in between. I loved the invitee of those cherished dreams. I have a good few year to go (I hope) until opportunity will present itself to look back on a life lived (or not) and compare the actuality with the early dream. I wonder how I will measure success and if I am able to draw correlation between the two notions of success that have existed at opposing ends of a life. Perhaps ‘success’ when seen from the latter years of life is measured by the level of happiness one holds in ones heart, but quite how one measures that wondrous quality is as uniquely personal as our fingerprint.

    Thank you for obliging my very early morning with a mindful post. As I head off to Zzzzz, I have plenty of uplifting thoughts to take with me into the dreamtime. I’ll say ‘au revoir’ and ‘see you on the other side’ 🙂

    Take care and enjoy a blessed week of success and reward 🙂

    Namaste 🙂

    DN

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    1. Greeting, dear friend Dewin. How nice of you to grace these pages with your ever-thoughtful comments. If I might attempt an answer to your question, I would say ‘No.’ We incarnated on Mother Earth in order to learn and grow our spirits. Since this is a bipolar planet, lessons will be learned in a similar fashion. We must experience darkness to appreciate the light, sadness to appreciate joy, failure to appreciate success. Those who never experience the dark side have little or no capacity to appreciate the light. In perceiving opportunities as obstacles, we are pulled toward the dark, which is merely the absence of light or awareness. Then, when we pull ourselves back toward the light, we can see how far we’ve come and how much we’ve grown. Learning is a process and success occurs across a spectrum.

      As we grow older and look back on our lives, I think we measure success by where on the spectrum of positive-negative our legacy lies ~ by, as you have so eloquently said, the level of happiness one holds in one’s heart. I’m so pleased the bee and morning glories delighted you. That brings me happiness, as I have ‘succeeded’ in brightening your day. My heart to your heart, my friend ❤

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      1. Hey Tina 🙂

        You make every visit here a delight to brighten my day and in that way you always succeed to please: as might pollen for the bees or the breeze for trees as it weaves lazy leaves and squeezes dips and dances else entrances between branches moved to flutter flitter pause and quiver and come to rest peacefully: why thank you Fair Lady T 🙂

        May I ask a question? Do you think we are born knowing of duality as a concept…is it pre-existing in spirit before we are pressed from light into the labyrinthine of Earth? Are we born from darkness into the light or born from light into the darkness? Our knowledge and use of both aspects of our being appears to provide the framework for a very harsh reality upon an exquisite planet of immaculate conception. It seems out of balance.

        I hope both you and I wear smiles inside and outside that tell the story of lives lived and loved and enjoyed for all they ever had to offer 🙂 As long as I always have an open window to look out of and a seat set on a hill with a view of the sky, I’ll want nothing more and be a happy guy lol 🙂

        ‘My heart to your heart my friend’ >3 Thank you…it is a beautiful signature and sentiment to close a reply between friends 🙂

        I imagine your afternoon approaches and beckons you to writing labour, so iI’ll bid thee ‘au revoir’ and leave you to the peace and tranquillity of the moment. Take care:)

        Namaste 🙂

        DN

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        1. Greetings, Dewin. I love the poetry in your words.

          I expect we know of duality when in spirit form and then forget when we incarnate. This is necessary in order to grow through the lessons we came here to learn. So it follows that we come from the light (knowing) into darkness (forgetting). Our spirits remain centered (in balance) as our minds reconcile the duality of our planetary polar existence. You might appreciate the post I wrote on the book, The Little Soul and the Sun https://tinafrisco.com/2017/05/23/book-review-the-little-soul-and-the-sun/.

          Nature always touches that place of inner peace and leaves me wearing a smile. Knowing that you are touched in the same way, my friend, brings a feeling of communion. My hope is akin to yours. Blessings and love, dear Dewin, from my heart to yours ❤

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          1. Hey Tina 🙂

            One day Tina, I like you, live in hope of a world brought into harmonious unity by the goodness of Love…it is our natural state of being…but, if only we could remember the moment just before an angel kissed our brow when newly born and returned us to naivety and innocence? 🙂

            When great suffering occurs upon our beautiful planet, I find myself considerate to quiet contemplative thoughts that ask why God permits it to ever happen at all?

            Communion…that is a beautiful word. Yes indeed, we share a love of nature and adore her beauty as she pours her heart in the creation of every new moment. All we have to do is sit back and enjoy the show 🙂

            From my heart to yours ❤

            Take care Tina. Namaste my friend 🙂

            DN

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            1. Oh, dear friend, suffering is permitted because we chose to incarnate within free will. If The Great One intervened, it would breach the contract we made before incarnating. This is a difficult concept for many of us. But intervention does occur at times, when the compassionate souls of fellow human beings channel Divine energy and act accordingly. We suffer in the flesh to grow in spirit. This is not necessary, but it is part of the learning process. Soon many beings will become enlightened, and we will live in peace and love. But we must remember that time is an illusion, and ‘soon’ may not be tomorrow. Yet we are on the threshold of a new day, when Divine light will fill the world … ❤

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              1. Thank you Tina, namaste 🙂

                Love is the force that brings all things to perfection. We are the product of this act of creation, therefore we are Love. Our weakness for forgetting we are Love is then the force of strength encouraging us to remember once again.

                Have a wonderful weekend in a seamless world 🙂

                Namaste ❤

                DN

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  9. Very wise words. I always think of the Dixie Chicks’ song ‘The Long Way Around’ when thinking about how some things have worked out. Sometimes we need to take a detour to get where we were really going, but we learn plenty on the way. Thanks, Tina.

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    1. You’re welcome, Olga. I like your image of the detour. Instead of climbing over an obstacle, we could simply walk around it. And as you say, it might take longer, but many adventures could await us. Thank you for the lovely comment ❤

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