Poll: If you could have success in *one* area of your life, what would you choose?

yay!

No chance of a bell curve for this one. But then again, someone already voted for an option other than emotional. Strange, why would anyone be successful at anything at the cost of being a loser regarding emotion

I voted for "emotional," but I'm starting to think maybe I should have said "spiritual"....actually, I'm not sure I could have one without the other....

Yeah, I'm thinking that if I can be happy with who and where I am, I don't really need any other type of success.

I had a VERY hard time deciding.

Really? Dude, I'm all about being gaining more knowledge.� Although I should have probably chosen the relationship one.. I reeeeally suck at that.

Well, I picked another option because I didn't read it as an absolute, so much. I read it more as what would I most yearn for right now in my life. I probably misinterpreted. But right now I'm pretty set on the emotional front. I'm in a really happy relationship. So out of that list what I most feel I need/want right now is not that option.

Perhaps if I'd interpreted it differently I would have picked the first.

I wouldn't want to limit success to just one area, but having said that, I cherish and hold dear the success I have found in my relationship with my soon-to-be wife. A whole lotta other things could be going bad, but as long as we are together, I feel satisfied and fufilled. She is the highest value in my life and I wouldn't want my life without her.

To quote Tom Wilson. :)

My spiritual side's fine, now I just need to remedy the lack of boy in the life.

I too will assume that the poll means "from this point, as things are, one thing you need". I've got the love (well mostly, except when I hog the computer ;-)) so I went with the artistic. It was still so hard to chose but I figure that art and creativity figure into happiness in just about all the other categories, particularly (for me) in the spiritual and emotional areas. And if I was good at art that would/could take care of the professional success. And somebody else can do the jokes about creativity and sexual happiness ;-)�

the lines between a bunch of these are too blurry, and i agree that a lot of these depend on a lot of other ones. i chose creativity, because art, music, and literature stick around when everything else is gone...i don't know where i'd be without them. they make every aspect of life feel just that much better for me...so having complete creative success would be like getting a bit more success in everything.

...But I believe that if one is happy in their spiritual life, they need nothing else. ;o)

--Rachel Marie aka Rai

I might be going off on a tangent here... but I find that far too many people confuse "spirtual" with "religious". (not saying that's the case for you... just commenting.)

It's interesting, because I really consider myself to be a spiritual person, yet, I have no belief in a religion.

Well, for a lot of people (myself included), being spiritual *is* being religious. I can understand how people can say they're spiritual and not be religious, but I think most religious people are spiritual.

I dunno, whenever I think of the words "religious" and "spiritual," I have some sort of aura around the two. Religious carries more of a traditional aspect, where spiritual is more of a frolicking through the fields type of thing.

Maybe it's just semantics.

We actually discuss religion and spirituality here at home fairly often.� I try to talk out why I don't believe in anything. And a lot of the times it comes out when I'm talking about things my gripes are religious in root, not spiritual. And a lot of the things that keep me from believing in a higher power are rooted in my doubts about what the religions of the world have taught. The discussions have really made me see that I don't reject a belief in a deity, and could accept that belief someday if it came into my heart. I just can't see myself becoming a believer in any particular religion. Not at this point in my life. Too long I've confused things and felt that since I can't buy into the religions, that I can't buy into spirituality at all. But I don't think that is necessarily the case, for me specifically. So...I think it's a bit more than semantics.

It's so complex. :) But I guess beliefs about the universe SHOULD be. Heee. :)

Yes, but I've known many people who were religious and not spiritual. It was just something they did on sundays.. and had no interest in.

An interesting thing is that... when you say that for you, "religious" carries a more traditional feeling, and "spiritual" carries more of a hippie one... for me, that's the reason I dislike thinking of things as "religious"

I see them as closed-minded and unchanging. I have no problem with religion, I just tend to take an issue with the church.

Now, I don't mean this to attack anyone's beliefs... I don't think my view is any more valid than anyone else's.

I just feel that "spiritual" is far more broad and over-reaching.... encompasing those who believe in a religion, and those who do not. Those who just believe in a common good or strength among humans.

Gah, I'm far to tired to explain right now. Did that make any sense?
:D

...or not historical enough. No religiousity or spirituality has stopped people from bludgeoning each other to death on a big scale. Crusades, jihads and so on were conducted by people in the name of one god or another. All religious people admit to a spiritual dimension in their Weltanschauung, but that doesn't stop them from hating the infidels to the point of making war on them. So, emotional happiness will suffice. As for the spiritual dimension, I'm content to find it in the music of the likes of J. S. Bach, the Beach Boys among others.

I would argue that people who kill, persecute, or conduct wars on the basis of religion do not have "success" in the area of spirituality.

Heh.
Very true.
:)

Yes, I know what you mean. I think that religion has too many negative connotations to it these days. Which is why people like myself, the men and women who believe that spirituality is more important in religion than traditions and giving money and whatnot, always feel as if we're defending something that already has thousands of years of bad reputation.

More later, I have just woken up and am in need of a shower.

A) I do not believe that success in merely one of the areas listed (and even several other areas that were not mentioned) could ever be considered success all by itself. To me the area that I would most want to be a success in would be 'Balance' or 'Internal Integration'.

2) Given the restraints of the question as it was asked, the strongest need that I currently feel of those listed is intellectual stimulation... Perhaps because it is the area of life that was once a huge part of what I had counted as among my most profound and satisfying achievements, and now I miss the confidence and encouragment I used feel when excelling intellectually....

iii) If physical attractiveness is offered as a area in life that qualifies as a significant source of self-satisfaction, then why is there not an area called 'Financial' (yes, it could be fit under the heading of professional success, but at this point in my life I have known many people whom have had very satisfying and successful careers but still can be in very difficult financial straights, so I need to make that distinction here). I am in far deeper financial straights right now than I have ever been in my life - or ever imagined I would be, and it is preventing me from moving on in so many other areas in life right now that no matter how ignoble it would make me feel to list it here, I would have to do so, because it constrains every other aspect of my life... and the hateful result isconstantly feeling trapped and paralyzed.

There, my dark little secret shame is out for all to see 8^(

Try telling that to a male who is absolutely convinced that he will have 70 virgins all to himself upon entering 'heaven' if he kills in the name of "spirtual conviction"... I am pretty sure he would believe himself to be a great spiritual success...!

8^)

8^P

8^)

Heh - I tried that once as an undergraduate with one of my earliest philosophy professors, you know, the 'it's just a semantic difference'... man did he dress me down in front of the rest of the class... "as long a we are speaking the same language in the same culture, there is no such thing as dissmissing an arguement by suggesting semantic differences are the problem" he said, "words represent very precise ideas and realities, there are shades of differences to each unique representation. Thus there area no synonyms... just one party or the others failure to understand the precise definition or representation of the words being used in their arguements. And thus there are no such thinks as semantic difference, only peoples ignorance of the presion of words meanings!"

Talk about feeling stupid in front of one's peers! Some of my friends hence forth referred to him as our "anti-semantic professor"... as long as he was not around, that is.

8^)

I completely understand, Paul... I'm feeling the same way right now. I never thought money could buy happiness, and I guess I still don't, but I'm becoming more and more aware of how the lack or loss of it can severely restrict happiness, in ways that I never could have imagined.

sorry..this has NOTHING to do with your post...i was just wondering how you got that picture beside your name? if you can tell me, you can e-mail me at [email protected]�my name's hannah!

Yes, exactly.
Money doesn't buy happiness... but it does buy less worry.
And considering pretty much ALL the worry in my life is money-related... having more money WOULD, in effect, buy me happiness.

I chose physical because I know I have a lot of bad habits I want to get rid of that end up having physical consequences. I know I eat a lot of things I shouldn't and I also want to stop having such a dependance on caffine and diet sodas. I'm also trying to lose a bit of weight so I can be healthier and I'm trying to have a healthier lifestyle.

Arr, well, I took this question to mean "in my life from this point onward." Or something like that. And I was one of the few who chose professional.

See, I have a boyfriend and that's fine, so I felt like I don't need, well, an improvement in the emotional area.

While I wouldn't describe myself as very healthy or fit, I also don't place too much importance on that. I'm not saying I wouldn't like to be, but I'm saying I value other things more.

I'm not at all religious or spiritual, and I'm fine with that.

Sexual? Oh, fiddle dee dee.

And as for mental and artistic, I really value them a great deal, but they're worthless to me, if I'm all poor and starving and living in a gutter.

You could ask me this any other time, and I bet I'd have a different answer. Right now, though, I'm a recent college grad and I feel like maybe I wasted my time at college and will never EVER find a job, so that's what I want most now, ya see? If I had enough money to support myself, I'd surely say mental or artistic.

You know what Liz Phair says, "It's nice to be liked, but it's better by far to get paid."

http://www.fruhead.com/mod/photos/add.php?thumb=1

there is no such thing as semantic difference, only people's ignorance of the precision of words' meanings

And he was a professor of philosophy? Wow. The meaning of words is so easily changed by context. On a flippant note compare a "blind venetian" with a "venetian blind."

Yes, I know that's what he'd believe...I just disagree.� :)

Yeah, but you're not a guy being promised 70 virgins.
;)

Mmmmmmm...virgins...

I had a hard time picking because... right now I don't really care about any of that a whole lot. I have a hard time seeing the point in almost everything.