The definition of success

My husband is one of those people who always seemed to have a plan and to know who he was and where he was going. He saw himself as an adult with house, wife, and kids one day...he saw himself as generally successful. He also never remembers his dreams and has no idea if he dreams in color or black and white, so I'm pretty sure he is kinda weird, anyway. I can't imagine what it must be like to become the person you thought you would be.

Is it wisdom, or lack of imagination? Is it validating to look back and say "Yeah, this is who I thought I was" or do you regret not taking the side paths, even if they caused you to lag behind in your life's journey? He seems happy, and he seems to feel as though he has succeeded in life. I, myself, find that I am happy...but not so sure about successful. I mean, I know I want to always be moving forward, and I don't want to become stagnant, but at the same time, when one feels successful, do you suddenly feel as though you have "arrived" and everything else is icing?

Honestly, I have had to seriously question where I belong, and if I am missing something. Life is so short and I want to squeeze everything joyful and thought provoking out of it. I want to mainline information and ideas directly into my veins in a constant stream of consciousness. I want to feel it, see it, experience it, becore I run out of days to do it in. I want to be happy, competent, successful in my own mind, regardless of what anyone else thinks.

Don't you have to know what "successful" means to you, personally, to accomplish this? I want to be a well loved mother, a lucrative entrepreneur, and wife that my husband is proud of...and I want to look amazing and be inspiring to others while doing it! Do I have too many criteria, do I expect too much or myself? Or am I limiting myself and stunting my potential abilities by accepting less? They say not to expect too much...but why not? So I don't get disappointed? But maybe what I receive correlates to what I expect and I am holding myself back. I wonder if those who have achieved greatness expected more than what I have expected in the past?

That is my new challenge. Expect more! Of myself, of my family, of my life! And if I don't get more from it, perhaps I should think about what I can do to change that. I think many of us don't think of ourselves in terms of "greatness"...thats for "other" people...famous people, rich people, lucky people. But why? We were all given the same number of hours each day, and while some of us may have started out a handicapped (physically, emotionally, fiscally, whatever), maybe ALL of us receive a handicap and those that win are those that overcome and see their own greatness and quit comparing themselves to others.

“The same wind blows on us all; the winds of disaster, opportunity and change. The same wind blows on us all. Therefore, it is not the blowing of the wind, but the setting of the sails that will determine our direction in life.”
~Jim Rohn