Many people will tell you they want to achieve success during their lifetime. But what really defines success? Success is personal and for it to have real impact on your life, you must have defined what success really means to you. You may succeed based on someone else's standards or definition but remain unfulfilled. And you will actually feed unsuccessful with no sense of personal accomplishment.
My favorite definition of success is this: “The achievement of intention or the achievement of something planned or attempted.” By using that definition, anyone can be successful, but it takes intention and focus on what is to be achieved. You must first identify and define what success will look like to you and then determine how you will measure that success. That is what most people fail to do.
Your life is comprised of many different components or areas, and therefore, there may be varying degrees of success for each area. A person may be wildly successful in one area of their life, and that same person may experience extreme failures in another. The CEO of a Fortune 500 company may considered a huge success in the business world, but at the same time, his family considers him a failure as a father and husband because he spends so little time with them.
Another example would be a stay-at-home mom who desires to devote her time to her family. The business world might consider her a failure. But based upon her personal definition of success and through the eyes of her family, she is a rock star.
In my own life, I have seven different areas or accounts of my life that are important to me. Consider taking the time to define the accounts in your own life which are the dearest to you and define what success would look like in those areas. You may have additional or different categories which could be included in your own life but here are mine: faith, family, friends, field of expertise, fun, fitness and financial.
You need to get very clear, deliberate and intentional with your definition of success in this area. It might take some time for you to do but it will be worth it.
Remember success is personal. And it is so much more than money, power and fame.
While many people might measure success by their job status, financial achievements, the power they hold, or education they have received, others measure success by relational achievement, such as being a good parent, having a loving relationship, or a contented family.
If you seek success for your life, you must be able to identify the accounts in your life which really matter. What are the pieces that form the whole you?
To make it truly powerful, write a detailed description of how success in that area of your life would rock your world. Would achieving success in that area change your future? Or change your life story?
Consider this challenge. Write out in detail a definition of what being successful means to you, and then begin setting your goals to achieve that success. Remember the definition of success is “...the achievement of intention: the achievement of something planned or attempted...”
Here's to your success!
