Success. What is it?

Success. What does that word actually mean? To you? So often we throw around the word “success” but we never actually stop to define it. In detail. For ourselves. The first time someone asked me to define success – in actual words – I was 24 years old. I almost instantly realized I had many “goals” and “dreams” I was working toward, but I had never stopped to define what success actually was to me. 

How do you expect to know when you have “arrived” if you haven’t actually defined it? Over the next several days I challenge you to contemplate the question: what is success to me? There is not a right or wrong answer. It looks different to everyone. But if you haven’t stopped to define it then how do you know when to celebrate it? 

If you never stop to define it I promise friends and family and coworkers and a boss will be more than happy to define success for YOU… but… only YOU can define success for YOU. So how do you define it? What does it look like? How does it feel? 

(At the age of 24 my definition of success was to have a performance job I loved, while also being able to pay my bills. To measure the dollar amount I remember saying “I want to be able to buy my parents an awesome dinner at a nice restaurant with appetizers, drinks, the main course and dessert. I also want to pick up the tab and pay for it. WITHOUT stress… I have lived this success! Over time my definition has grown and shifted and changed as I have. I have also learned that success is not always measured with dollar signs. 

It is fun to define success so you can create a plan to go get it! In fact, every so often it is important to also (1) look at the success, regardless of the level you have achieved and (2) set new success goals. How do you define the difference between achieving goals and calling those a success?)