Reflection Questions
Welcome to the Wisdom of the World - Joan Chittister

Chapter 9- “What Does It Take to Succeed?

Part 1

How do each of the following points regarding success “Speak” to me about the way I live my life?  How do they challenge me?

 ·        Success is becoming what we are supposed to be – fully developed human beings for whom life is a cache of experience, not a series of events. (p. 62)

·        Success is what we get when we embrace every dimension of life, lusting for no more than others, rejecting none as less acceptable than others, evaluating none as unimportant. (p. 62)

·        There are standards of success that no amount of achievement can possibly equal.  It is maintaining standards of success based more on values than on things that is the most difficult task of all. (p. 63)

·        Success is not what we’ve done.  t is whether or not anything we did was worth doing – worth it for someone else. (p. 64)

·        It is not the things we do that count in the end – it is the way we do the things we do that makes the difference.  (p. 64)

Part 2

The story of Tetsugen, a follower of Zen in Japan, illustrates a model of success in which the standards of success are based on values rather than on things.  “We can spend our lives on the sutras, the holy books of our choice, and never live them.” (p. 64)