There is no standard definition for success as success can be different for every individual. But how we define and measure it matters the most. After reading this article you will have a clear vision of what success actually means, why is measuring success important, how to define and measure success for yourself on your own terms, and how would a clear definition of success help you.
What is Success?
Success is being SATISFIED with the accomplishment of an aim or purpose that you must initially define for yourself.
Success, in a broad meaning, is accomplishing an aim or purpose that you specify for yourself beforehand. If we pay attention to our definition of success, most of us chase titles, social status, and money, but we don’t feel satisfied when we accomplish these goals. The issue here is our measurement and definition of success. You would learn why by the end of the article.
Success for most of us is accomplishing our goals or purposes only but in fact, success is to accomplish satisfaction with it.
I take satisfaction as a unit of measurement when it comes to measuring success.
Why is Defining Success Important?
Defining or measuring success gives you a different perspective on your daily life activities, relationships, love, and personal happiness. It defines and shapes your values. Our values are defining us and our personalities, therefore defining success results in becoming better and happy human beings.
Elon Musk says “Stop being patient, start asking yourself how do I accomplish my 10-year plan in 6 months? You’ll probably fail, but you’ll be a lot further than the person who simply accepted it was going to take 10 years!”
To achieve the ten years plan in 6 months you have to work twenty times more than a normal person would do, given that on average a person works 40 hours a week. Now let’s suppose you work for 100 hours per week. This way you are 2.5 times ahead of normal people.
Being ahead of others is an accomplishment. But if your definition of success isn’t well thought, you won’t see it as an accomplishment. It definitely is a failure because you don’t feel successful and satisfied. It’s the wrong measurement or definition of success that causes this issue.
How to Define Success?
Success could be different for everyone. It could be anything, achieving a goal, getting accepted to a job, receiving approval to a scholarship and the degree of your dreams, and etcetera.
For me, success is the feeling of accomplishment in what I do. It is feeling fulfilled and happy with what I have achieved in life. For some people, success is about approval from others or making more money. For some people, achieving a goal can make them feel successful even if they don’t like the goal they achieved.
Success for me means achieving goals that I set for myself and that is meaningful to me. This is my definition of success.
You can have a very different definition of success crafted especially for yourself by taking these steps into consideration.
1. Train for Gratitude
Gratitude is a trait that helps us to communicate with others, feel more happiness, and enjoy a higher quality of life. In this section, we will list some tips and reminders for success in the area of gratitude.
In order to grow in the area of gratitude, it is important to focus on what you have rather than what you do not have. It’s normal to get frustrated when someone else has something that we want, but being grateful for what we have provides us with a sense of contentment. It also prevents feelings of envy from overwhelming us.
We should try to cultivate an attitude that emphasizes the positive qualities of ourselves and others people. The best way to strengthen our gratitude is by actively looking for all the things for which we are grateful each day.
2. Understand the Difference Between Needs and Wants
Our desires are not always our needs. For example, when we want to buy a new car, that is not always the need that is required for us to drive.
We also need food and water in order to survive. We may want a new car, but it might not fit into our budget. If we continue with the desire of buying the car, then we will likely end up in debt with no way of paying it off.
So when making decisions on what we need or want in life, it’s important to make sure that you are defining your needs before your wants so you don’t end up in debt or starving because you prioritized one over the other.
3. Success is Taking Care of Yourself
We all want to be happy and we pursue it in many different ways. However, what is happiness? It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact meaning of happiness because it has so many definitions. One definition of happiness is a mental state that people experience when things are going well for them and their lives seem good and fulfilling.
Happiness also means the feeling or mood that makes people like themselves, feel contented, fulfilled, and satisfied with their lives, which is again equal to success.
We need to take care of ourselves in order to be happy; we need not only to use mindfulness but also physical exercise as a way to improve our mental state. Success is to be healthy.
A study has shown that the mental health of an individual is directly proportional to the physical health of an individual.
4. Improve Constantly
Improvement is an essential habit that will help you grow as a person. Feeling like they are improving at something, people feel better about themselves and more confident in their abilities.
In this section, I will explore how to improve constantly and what the benefits of improvement are.
The first thing that we need to do is to clarify what we’re trying to improve at. This can be a certain skill or trait, such as public speaking for example. We should then define success in this area and follow a path towards it by setting goals or milestones along the way to track our progress.
The benefits of improvement include being able to learn new things quicker, feeling more satisfied with oneself, and not being afraid of failure.
How Would a Clear Definition of Success Help You?
Not having a clear vision of where do you want to go, can be devastating. It’s a hustle without a purpose. Running on a track without any goal and purpose is boring and tiring at the same time. Having no clear vision is also like running for no reason.
A clear definition and measurement of success give you the ability to focus on things that are important in life. A human being is not a machine to work towards a goal nonstop. A human being needs other people around, he needs healthy relationships. So, in order to achieve our monetary goals and have a healthy and creative life at the same time, we need to have a clear definition of success and our goals. It helps us to priorities things.
Conclusion
To conclude, the main takeaway of this article is the feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment after you achieve a certain goal or a purpose. Success is achieving the basic achievements that we mostly ignore because we are always overwhelmed by models on social media, and the stories of all the overachievers.
In order to be successful, we need to focus on how healthy and happy we are. Because the ultimate goal in life nowadays is to be happy and healthy. No money can buy these two precious assets.
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