> Depends in your definition of success. Yes! Similarly to the poster (and, I believe, most people out there), I also have to deal with the pressure to try to

> Depends in your definition of success. Yes! Similarly to the poster (and, I believe, most people out there), I also have to deal with the pressure to try to be "successful", without being able to pass a certain threshold. I guess it's ambition and ambition knows no limits. Or maybe it's fear! Fear sucks as well. Here's my personal definition of success, for several different areas of life. I use these to make peace with myself: - personal level: being alive, having goals, energy and curiosity - health: being relatively healthy, not having any disease and not much pain in the body - finances: having own house, enough money for down-payments, being able to save more than you spend, having enough for buying spare tools for your job (like a 2nd computer when your main one fails) - roots: having good relation with parents, direct family, and carving your own path - family: being able to provide for your children, and spend some time with them - hobbies and interests: having time for learning, playing, etc. - relations: not being too stubborn, and having a pleasant relation with your spouse - spirituality/morality: have a framework, a lens for which you see the world (even if you have to adapt it from time to time) - career/social position: have a guide-line (a career), such that you can be socially useful, and that you feel you can progress, do what you're capable of, and not aim for more recognition than you deserve, tame ambition - friends and allies: help and support other people when possible, be helped by them as well. When I'm (more) down, I refer to this list. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.. :)