Do You Consider Yourself a Successful Person?
The question almost every company asks during a candidate interview, yet people rarely ask themselves. Measuring and appreciating your level of success matters so you can locate yourself in your life and your world. It lets you see how far you have advanced toward your goals, projects, and dreams. But before you can answer that question, you must define what success is.
One person’s success can be another person’s failure. People often compare their success with others. My neighbor lives in a beautiful house with an expensive car, takes vacations four times a year, and has a wonderful wife and family. What you do not see are the hidden underlying attributes that make up your neighbor’s life. It is easy to notice another man’s riches more clearly than your own without appreciating the other hidden factors.
We should strive for excellence, not success. If you aim for success, it becomes an endless task, just like trying to find happiness. If you focus on excellence, success is guaranteed because it is the byproduct of great work and values.
Sponsored*
How to Define Your Own Version of Success
Reflect on how you define success. Make a list of how you see success.
What does it mean to be successful? Acquiring material possessions? Maintaining high-quality relationships? How will you know when you have succeeded?
My definition of success has changed enormously over the years. If someone had asked me to define success 10 years ago, for me it meant being rich and having more money than necessary, working three weeks a year, and traveling the world.
Today my definition of success is very different. It involves less superficial concepts and is less centered on me:
- Having a healthy body and mind
- Having educated and healthy daughters
- Helping my employees have an experience they could never find at other companies and improving their quality of life
- Helping children escape poverty and violence by working with WorldVision
- Staying active in fighting deforestation with One Tree Planted
- Enjoying moments with my family
- Being an empathetic person with goals larger than my own needs
- Having financial freedom to choose and design my reality
You know you are successful when you have fulfilled your purpose and destiny. Every day is a blessing, not a chore. Getting up in the morning becomes a joy, not a curse, and you are at peace with yourself and your surroundings.
You have to understand, as I did over the years, that success does not follow a straight line. There are many detours and paths that lead to success. The detours and dead ends are the lessons learned on the way to success. They shape and mold you into the person you become.