I was fortunate that my last retreat during my high school days was not entirely the traditional God or faith based retreat. The twist was that this time we had organizational change and life skills mentors. If I remember it correctly our trainers were from a firm called Organizational Change Consultants, Inc. (OCCi)
I've leared a lot from that experience. One thing that I've learned and holds me together is to depart from a "victimised mindset." What I understood from this was that in any problem that I face I must look at different aspects that would have created the problem. It challenges me to look at what I have done than immediately pointing a finger to someone else. It forces me to be more responsible than just feeling victimised and blaming other people or the supernatural.
During that epiphany I realised also that success can also mean the level of happiness one experiences or achieves in a career or vocation.