To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

Success gets measured by a different instrument here, and the reading is startlingly small: one person, slightly less burdened, because of you. That standard is available to almost anybody, which is precisely what makes it uncomfortable, since it removes the excuse of not having enough scope.

It also cuts against keeping score in the usual currencies. Think of somebody whose week you could make lighter with an hour, a phone call or a piece of information you happen to hold. Do that this week and let it count, properly, as an achievement rather than a nicety.