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Guest post by: Mathew Tamin Become an Author

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When people think of success, the first thing that comes to mind is having lots of money, money and more money. A few months ago, I wrote an article about LIVING IN A DEAD BODY! This coincides with what is means to be successful.

I believe that there are 5 ways to determine how successful you really are:

1. Spiritual

2. Psychological

3. Emotional

4. Physical

5. Financial

1. Spiritual

I define Sunday mornings as people who are seeking spiritual success. Most of us go to church because we feel the need to connect with our creator and to make sure that we are pleasing him. As a Christian, I want to make sure that I am attaining and maintaining a certain level of success by being obedient to the word of God--the Bible. In fact, if you ever read the entire bible, you will notice one primary word that the bible is based on--relationship. A relationship with God and His children. If you read Romans 3:23, it says, "For all have sinned..." That means that we've been unsuccessful. However, in Romans 6:23, we found a way to be redeemed, "...but the gift of God is eternal life."

Now, whether you believe in what I just wrote or not is up to you. The point is this, at some point and time in your life, you will find yourself in a position that will make you seek spiritual success. That's why most people become very "spiritual" when incarcerated. This is because they felt like the reason for their punishment is When people think of success, the first thing that comes to mind is having lots of money, money and more money. A few months ago, I wrote an article about LIVING IN A DEAD BODY! This coincides with what is means to be successful. I believe that there are 5 ways to determine how successful you really are:

1. Spiritual Success

2. Psychological Success

3. Emotional Success

4. Physical Success

5. Financial Success

2. Psychologically

Psychology is the science of understanding behavior. In essence, your behavior will determine how far your advance or don't advance in life. Erick Erickson the Danish-German-American Psychoanalyst outlines eight stages of development:

Stage 1. Infancy: Birth to 18 Months

Ego Development Outcome: Trust vs. Mistrust

Basic strength: Drive and Hope

Stage 2. Early Childhood: 18 Months to 3 Years

Ego Development Outcome: Autonomy vs. Shame

Basic Strengths: Self-control, Courage, and Will

Stage 3. Play Age: 3 to 5 Years

Ego Development Outcome: Initiative vs. Guilt

Basic Strength: Purpose

Stage 4. School Age: 6 to 12 Years

Ego Development Outcome: Industry vs. Inferiority

Basic Strengths: Method and Competence

Stage 5. Adolescence: 12 to 18 Years

Ego Development Outcome: Identity vs. Role Confusion

Basic Strengths: Devotion and Fidelity

Stage 6. Young adulthood: 18 to 35

Ego Development Outcome: Intimacy and Solidarity vs. Isolation

Basic Strengths: Affiliation and Love

Stage 7. Middle Adulthood: 35 to 55 or 65

Ego Development Outcome: Generativity vs. Self absorption or Stagnation

Basic Strengths: Production and Care

Stage 8. Late Adulthood: 55 or 65 to Death

Ego Development Outcome: Integrity vs. Despair

Basic Strengths: Wisdom

Missing any of these stages could be detrimental to your psychological success. Sadly, many of us have missed more stages than we thought we did. Missing certain stages will cause a 45 yr old man to act like a 15 year old. The harsh reality is that you cannot blame them because they sometimes have no control over it.

3. Emotional Success

Emotional success is the ability to have balance in your life. An unbalance person is "unstable in all his ways" according to James 1. Many of us have made a life changing decisions based on our emotions and not principles. The rule of thumb for making an emotional decision is this, " NEVER make any major decisions based on your emotions" Why? For example, if you are sad or depressed, you are more likely to make a decision that reflects your emotional state. Same thing happens on the contrary; when you are happy, you make decisions based on that emotions. Both of which I don't recommend.

4. Physical Success

This is an area that as Americans we don't do the best in. We have some of the most obese people on planet earth. With McDonald sales jumping a whopping 45% in a recession, it have to make you wonder what's going on. How well are you taking care of your temple (body)? Do you wish you had bigger lips, or bigger breast? Or maybe you think that you will feel better about yourself if you were thinner or gain a little bit of weight. Regardless of what it is, many of us struggle in this area and have not been very successful.

Let me ask you one question: Are you 100% HAPPY with how God created you? In other words, if you had the power change your physical appearing, would you do it? Think about it.

5. Financial

Finally, we come to the 99.999999999 and 3/4 of the population definition of success--Money, money, money monay! The truth about financial success is this, if you have not attained a certain level of success in those areas of your life, then when you do get the money, things will only get worse. We see a prime example of this with celebrities and famous people. They have the wealth but yet 99% of them are not happy. The same thing happens to us. We are emotionally unstable, spiritual dead, psychological decapitated, physically drained, and financially broke. We think that if only I had more money in the bank then I would be happy. Sadly, that is never the case.

My prayer for you is this; that you will find success spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, physically and then financially. Until you are able to achieve success on the 5 different levels I mentioned, then you've only accomplished 1/3 of what you really think is success.

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