What Does Success Mean to You?
The other day, I was going through some old documents on my computer, and I found a list of various definitions of success. I can’t remember exactly what this was for, but I suspect it had something to do with a coaching exercise I was doing at the time.
Success is a very subjective term, and it doesn’t mean exactly the same thing to two different people. Not knowing how you define success in your life can make the process of becoming successful even more challenging. It’s like fumbling around in the dark to find something when the light switch is right next to you, if only you would stop grasping in the dark and focus on the light switch.
So, I thought I’d share my list of what success means to me (at least what it meant to me when I created it last year) so we can take a look at the different meanings of success. Success in my life means (in no particular order):
- Being happy
- Doing what I love everyday
- Helping others do what they love
- Staying true to my values
- Being a good mom
- Having respectful relationships with those around me
- Being able to contribute financially to my household
- Reaching financial security
- Being recognized as knowledgeable by peers
- Having time to enjoy the little things in life
- Not feeling stressed and overwhelmed on a regular basis
- Being in control of my own future
- Following my dreams
- Setting and reaching meaningful goals
- Making genuine connections with others
What’s On Your List?
When is the last time you thought about success and what being successful means in your life? Does your definition of success match up with where you’re focusing your time and energy every day?
Not only does an exercise like this give you a chance to reevaluate your priorities and help clarify the direction you need to go in order to reach your goals, but it can also serve as an effective way to brainstorm things in your life and work that you may want to try doing differently.
Take some time to think about how you define success, make your own list and see how it relates to your day-to-day life. If you’d like, share your definition of success in the comments so we can create a broad list of meanings, and see how success can vary from person to person.
Image credit: svilen001
