I have started and stopped this blog post seven times.

I have typed, back-spaced, deleted and select-all'ed myself into a frenzy.

Because I know what I want to say, but can't seem to find the way to say it in 600 words.

Maybe it needs fewer words, less typing, less snarky pun-filled humor.

Let's try simple, shall we?

Ahem.

To be happier, make your own yardstick to measure success.

Not your mom's measuring stick, not your dad's, not your suck-uppy cousin Kevin's, not your office mate's, not your boss', not your neighbor's, not TV, not Twitter, not Maxim magazine.

Don't let anyone tell you that you're a slacker if you don't work fourteen hour days, or that you're nobody if you don't travel for work.  Don't listen to anyone tell you that all the cool kids are litigators. Or brand managers. Or social media gurus.  Ignore those who hold that you're a loser if you're not pulling down six figures. Or seven. Plug up your ears when you hear that you are throwing away your degree and experience when you decide to start your own business.  Or when you take a break from working to care for your small children, your sick father or your ill spouse.

All of that is someone else's measure of what's right for you.

What's right for you?

You decide.

Because when you gauge your life by someone else's measure, you will always come up short.

Build your yardstick with a mark for playing to your unique strengths. Scratch another line for your values, one for your passions, another for the realities of your life, and what it is that you really want.

Mark your integrity, your goals, your purpose in life.

Then stand back and take a look at what you've created.

Looks like success, doesn't it?