time. The indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present and future regarded as a whole.
The indefinite continued progress.
Forward movement that has no clear stopping point. Time is perpetual growth. We continue on until we don't.
Is success measured by your investment of time?
Think about the feeling of success. What provides the feeling of success in something? Success is the reward or praise for an action or accomplishment. Success is achieving a positive outcome based on action.
Consider career success as an example. If a person who has a very successful career were asked, "How much time do you invest in your work?" Their answer would be, at minimum, more than 50%. If a person's capacity to invest time uses a value of 100%, then at least half of a person's time would be invested in activities that generate career success. Divide the remaining 50% of available time between family, significant other, oneself, hobbies, health and other components of life. Time can't be evenly distributed. The less time invested into something directly impacts success in that same thing. In this example, if a total of 15% (if you're lucky) of time is spent on marriage- then there is less aptitude to feel successful.
It's natural to assume that someone who is divorced isn't necessarily supportive of marriage. For me, it's the complete opposite. I forced a marriage because I wanted a family so desperately. Deep down it's probably something that I still want, except now I completely realize how truly difficult it is. I also had to accept and make changes in my life because what I had originally chosen wasn't right. What I've learned is how very difficult it is to sustain all of life's truest gifts. As Theodore Roosevelt said, "Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty... I have never envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well." Difficult doesn't have to mean miserable. It means needing effort or skill to accomplish, deal with or understand something. We can't accomplish anything in life without effort (time), pain (growth) and difficulty (achievement).
When I hear other people talk negatively about their relationships, specifically marriages, I always ask, "How much time do you spend on your career?" Let's say the answer is 70%. Then I ask, "How much time do you invest in your marriage?" There is usually no answer. Then I say, "If you reversed the amount of time that you spend on your marriage with the amount of time that you spend working, would you complain if your career started failing?" The point is that happiness and feeling successful in something is directly related to the amount of time invested.