How to get the most out of living? Taken from the text Living Successfully !

Most true Christian would say, the possibilities of riches and wealth in life and the best rewards in living, is to have a Christ’s life filled with the God’s kind of success, peace of mind, joy and happiness with victory and success in eternal terms. The Christian believes he or she can realized this place in living and that it can be realized in every person during his or her journey upon this earth. To have this type of life, there must be a blueprint, a pattern, a plan that is believable, simple, practical, God directed, concrete and lasting. It is an endeavor in this book to present a road map, a course of action and a clear application that can be applied for lasting success, living successfully “getting the most out of living.” It can be known, grasped and realized. There is a divine plan and pattern for our success in life and there is a realization when we are there, “having success in God’s eternal terms.” The Eternal has not given us a blind path and a misguided concept to what is a full life upon this earth in Him but God has made plain and clear that the journey to completion in life is more than a full purse of money worth or an abundance of material things, etc. It is fulfilling God’s plan and experiencing success in eternal terms. We will discuss success in the terms of God’s words. In essence, to get the most out of life is to fulfill God’s purpose accordingly to His’ terms. What are God’s terms to get the most out of life?
Most of us discover through trial and error the meaning of success in this life. Usually at the end of life journey we begin to get a clue that things we thought were successful was only a shallow of what real success is. Again, success cannot be measured in human life terms; it must be measured in eternal terms. We are not successful by man’s standards but by God’s measurement of success. If this truth is hid from us, it may very well be that we haven’t experienced success yet; we are still looking for it. Most people spend their entire life working and looking for what they call success; never arriving there. They really don’t know if and when they have found success or if they have arrived with life’s success. Most of them simply die trying to be successful. Can success be acquired primary on human terms? Can we as human beings know and feel the God’s kind of success and become satisfied with it? Is there an end to the search of success in this life? Can we have an organization of success gather into our knowledge and arrived at an appointed time in life that we become fulfill in knowing we have accumulated wisdom, resource and secrets to complete our search for the path of success? Most of us have never thought that success is ever measured or can be weight. Most of mankind is comparing success with some one else success from an external and earthly point of view. “Real success is never totally in the outer earth observations; it is always in the inner heart.” The proof of a successful person is first expressed in him or her at peace with himself or herself and with the Almighty God. To truly succeed is to conquer oneself and make peace with the Divine. The wise man, Solomon said, “The man that conquers his (own) spirit is greater than the man that takes the city.” It appears that we have more failures for success than we have winner in success! I use the term winner in success because we have made success a winning game; when in reality success is a way of living. “To succeed in life is not always to make the most (in money, fame, etc) in life; but on the other hand, it is learning and knowing how to live.” Knowing how to live is to be successful in living! Isn’t life about living? Isn’t living about life? To live is the goal of life! May we continue to look closely at the issues of success, ‘How to get the most out of living?’

Back to the Philosophizers
The idea of what is good and right in success came into debate between Aristotle and Plato. We referred earlier in the introduction to Aristotle reflection in success as wholeness in a person being. When there is good in success, there is “wholeness in being.” There was a strong disagreement between the thoughts of Aristotle and Plato about success at this point. Plato said that good is the best thing in the world, but his idea was abstract. Aristotle felt that knowing what is good would help in discerning what good a man was to attempt or achieve. The goods that were relevant to Aristotle are politics, economics and wisdom, all three of these account were those who sought world’s success. Aristotle further stated that one does not find, nor could find any profound metaphysical doctrine of "Goodness." A person had to achieve clarity and understanding about the best way for him or her to live life in their best. Aristotle continues that there must be knowledge of what is good in life to achieve success.
The best ways for individuals to live is up to one's own nature in success, or for one to live in a rational way, there must be a rational understanding of good and true success in life. Living a well-lived life is the best possible "good" for a man. Living well and fully with rational understanding is what it is to succeed as a human being. Living well means living virtuously. Living well means living one's life under the guidance of the virtues of the soul and spirit. Since success is a perfect and self-sufficient objective, it must include the whole of life and all the most important virtues. Success in life, the best possible good for man, is therefore living one's whole life in a rational way, under the guidance of the best virtues given by the Almighty. Belief, discipline, knowledge and education foster virtuous activities that lead a man or woman to success.
When one does achieve success Aristotle says that we should praise men for the qualities, which help them achieve, but we should congratulate them for that achievement. In order to be successful one must have some good fortune, because it is hard to be happy if you are ugly, poor, fat, or if your offspring are a disappointment. However, this does not mean that good fortune gives one success or the opposite, just that good fortune is helpful. At the same time, too much good fortune can be harmful. This best type of successful person is what Aristotle calls a "gentleman" or "noble and good gentleman." A gentleman makes proper use of the things that come to him, and a gentleman deserves to enjoy those things. Only a gentleman can be magnanimous (highest term of moral praise), confident in his own virtues and confident in deserving what he deserves. Aristotle's final definition of success is entirely excellent activity, together with moderate good fortune, throughout an entire life.

Christ’s Words
The words of Christ clearly define success as “a man’s life does not consist in the abundant of things he processes (earthly);” there must be a success beyond his things. A successful life is measured in a total sum of all of man’s activities. A good and successful life is a sum total of man’s moral contribution to his fellow man. It can be define as success in living. Christ defines success in these terms often as a measurement in successful living. This often was the rule that Christ determined a full and complete life. A life must be measured by the total sum of all activities and contribution. This is the bottom line to define success in living. Is it true that getting the most out of living is being successful? Certainly, personal satisfaction is a fulfillment in living! The attention given to our needs being fulfilled is a demanding part of a person’s success. However to succeed in living reaches beyond the fulfillment of one’s own personal needs being met in materials things. The Philosophers’ teaching as well as the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ reflects a success’ measurement in mankind based upon the virtues in human life. Acquiring things alone does not declare a total successful person. There are qualities in living that fulfills life and adds to the total sum of living above and beyond getting more out of one’s life than this single driven purpose to ‘satisfy self.’ Self-satisfaction can become an end within itself. ‘Successful living’ is life satisfaction beyond self.

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