What is success? Too many people start out with the goal of being successful without ever thinking much about what it means. This can lead to problems. The first step toward any kind of success is understanding and choosing what it means for you.
In my own adult life, I have completely redefined my idea of success multiple times. At first, I focused on success as doing well in college and getting a great job on a path to financial benefits. After finding dissatisfaction with having a great job and financial success, I exited my career after many years and decided to become an entrepreneur.
My goal as an entrepreneur was to build something of lasting value and to take more control of my time so I could have more balance in my life. Having achieved those goals, my idea of success has shifted again to include making a positive impact on the lives of the people around me, especially my family, partners, colleagues and community. I'm still focused on building my company, but how I define the success of my company and also of my life has changed for the second time.
I don't believe my earlier thinking about success was wrong as much as it evolved over time as my experiences and values changed how I defined success for myself. But I do believe that there are good and bad ways of thinking about success. Metrics of success are not equal. Some are better than others.
Understanding Good And Bad Ways Of Thinking About Success
What are bad success metrics? Some success metrics of questionable value are:
• Is your pet your most significant relationship?
• Is the number of likes you get on social media the highlight of your day?
• Is getting to the next level in your favorite video game your main goal in life?
• Do you value the work you do only by the amount of money you earn doing it?
• Do you judge your personal relationships strictly by how they benefit you financially?
If these are bad success metrics, what are some good ones? Clearly, good metrics are likely to be related to achieving goals that help you attain success. We’ve identified some situations where achievement doesn’t necessarily equate to success, however, so before deciding what good success metrics look like we should first try to identify just what success is.
Identifying Success
What is success? The questionable success metrics presented earlier make it clear that success is not necessarily just doing what you like to do, even if you do it well. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem realistic to assume that success means the same thing for everyone. To identify what success is, we need to ask some basic questions about human behavior and what motivates people, such as: Why do you do what you do? What are the goals you'd like to achieve?
You might say that just about any goal a person might want to aim for could be placed in the following broad categories:
• Money
• Social status
• Relationships
• Career
• Free time
If success stems from achieving goals in these categories, good success metrics would measure how well a person was able to achieve these objectives. Given these goals, some good success metrics might include:
• Do you make enough money to enjoy your free time?
• How much of your time do you spend with your friends and family?
• How much of your time do you spend enjoying free-time activities?
• How much progress have you made toward achieving your career goals?
Keeping in mind everything we’ve covered to this point, you could say that success is most likely to occur when you take the steps necessary to achieve your goals while, at the same time, preventing any activity (or activities) — however enjoyable — from absorbing so much of your time and energy that it limits your ability to pursue your preferred lifestyle.
Success is very personal. It is really about living the type of life you want to live. But first, you need to spend the time to think about what that means.
