“In the fall, clinician Joyce Marter and her husband hosted their friends for a dinner party at their Chicago home. Among the couples — all in their 40s with school-aged kids — conversation turned to the adventures of parenting and the tricky stage of adolescence.

This sparked a dialogue about how they gauge success. Marter’s knee-jerk reaction was to say that success excludes dicey circumstances such as driving under the influence or dropping out of school.

‘Thankfully, I quickly regrouped from this position of fear-based and judgmental thinking and realized I do not truly believe any of those experiences or other life challenges mean somebody has failed or is not successful,’ she said.

Hardships make us human and give us the opportunity to grow, she said. None of us is perfect or remains unscathed in life.

Marter’s guests offered myriad definitions, everything from education to prosperity to resiliency to health to happiness.

So what is success? What does being a success look like? Below, Marter and other clinicians spill their views on success.”

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