Are I sucessfull?

A sort-of quiz is going around my bit of Facebook and that's where I get all my ideas from nowadays, so here we are. Six questions to ask yourself to know if you're successful.

I am actually always wondering about this so it's appropriate, although, spoiler alert, the listicle/article does not tell you how your answers to the six questions ought to correlate or feed into the eventual determination you may very reasonably be anticipating being able to make.  Is it just a straight 50/50 pass or fail type situation? One clue, however, is provided, in the form of a stock image - presumably, if you can hold up a pencil with obvious intent and stare fixedly at a bookcase full of lever arch files like the woman in the picture, then ok sure, U R definitely SUCCESSFUL.



1. Are you happy?

Not generally.

2. Can you pay your bills?

not without help that I don't want, so mmm, no.

3. How do you define success?

having the capacity to give different answers to the first two of these questions.

4. What can you do now that you couldn't do a year ago, or four years ago?

I have become extremely excellent at remembering to return or renew library books before the due date. I can talk about horrible things that have happened to people without bursting into tears. Since I started doing the job I currently have I have completely broken myself of the expensive and unhealthy habit of buying my lunch.

5.  What are you most proud of?

Of Leonard's happy childhood; of my contributions to knowledge via my academic work, and in my current job, of the small part I've played in the reckonings with their own pasts that some veterans of war have been able to make through their involvement with the building and the things we do here.

6. Are you working toward something? 


Too many things, probably: finishing the blasted dress I've been sewing away at since the middle of March, submitting a short story and a novel for publication; Anzac Day; repairing my broken personal life; getting my weight down under seventy kilos; to the arrival of a era when Australians accept our collective responsibility to use our immense community good fortune to bring about the end of war.

But Laura, how's your  staring and pencil game?


Average.