What's Your Definition of Success?

The word success has many internal and external aspects attached to it. Society influences our concept of success. We attach certain emotions to the word success, whether we talk about our or other people's success. In this blog post, we explore your definition of success.

The dictionary definitions of success are:

"the accomplishment of an aim or purpose" or

"the achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted".

If your definition of success is based on this, for example, you consider yourself successful when you achieve your goal. This might mean that you are not successful while working towards your goal; you become successful only when you achieve your goal. This approach can easily lead to considering yourself a failure, especially if it takes a long time to achieve your goal. You can have this disempowering feeling each time you encounter a setback or when your action does not bring the desired result or you have to reshape your plan and it takes longer to achieve your goal than initially planned. Of course, the feeling of being successful can be reinforced by achieving previous goals if you celebrate them and acknowledge your contribution and merits to achieving them. But this might not last long, especially if your journey is full of difficulties and setbacks and your self-confidence is low. If you haven't achieved a previous goal, the tendency of considering yourself a failure, or that success always eludes you, will be increased by the negative experience. You can set intermediary goals or milestones and celebrate their achievement.

According to Jim Rohn,

"Success is steady progress toward one's personal goals."

What is success? To be able to go to bed every night with your soul at peace.

Your soul is at peace because you have done everything in your power to achieve what you desire during the day. Do not push your success into the future because you might feel miserable, unfulfilled and dissatisfied on your journey towards your goal. After so much effort and misery, you won't be able to really enjoy the final result either. Never postpone your joy and happiness to the moment you achieve something important. Live fully every day. Enjoy the steps you take towards your goal and acknowledge your small results on the way to success. Be grateful for what you have already achieved. Let every day be a success because you have done something to achieve what you desire and got one step closer to it or because you have learnt something that will help you to achieve your goal. This latter element requires some self-reflection to learn from your experiences and mistakes.

In this way, success becomes a way of existence and a way of thinking. You can celebrate yourself and your small achievements every day, knowing that what you did during the day took you a small step closer to your big goal. You'll have reasons to be satisfied and grateful every day. This will motivate you to take continuous action, increase your self-confidence and self-esteem, and fill your daily life with joy, satisfaction and fulfilment.

However, you could also become complacent and not aim to accomplish your goal because you already feel successful when you do a small task, action, or step toward it. This approach might lengthen the time necessary to achieve your goal.

Furthermore, you may also consider an old definition of success dating back to the 15th century when success also meant "the good or bad outcome of an undertaking". In this way, even if some of your daily actions have not produced the expected outcome, you would not get into negative self-talk and consider that you failed in any way because the action did not result in the expected outcome. You can reframe your point of view and consider you have found out what way of action does not work and thus have learnt something for the future. If you do not repeat the same mistake in the future, it is one kind of success because you developed your skills and expertise. When a situation like this appears, think about Thomas A. Edison, who was famous for never giving up in his search for the construction of the electric light bulb. He tried over 10,000 versions that did not work until he found the right one. But he said: "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work.". You can apply the same approach when something doesn't work out. It is not the real result or event, but the meaning you attach to it that shapes your way of thinking, your actions and ultimately your life.

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work."
Thomas A. Edison

Another important aspect of success is your mindset. Dr Joyce Brothers' definition of success expresses the importance of your way of thinking and having a success mindset.

Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success. 
Dr Joyce Brothers

Your thoughts, beliefs and points of view determine your attitude, behaviour and actions. For example, if you believe you are a failure and keep saying this to yourself, you will become a failure. If you think that every small result represents success, you reinforce your belief that you are a successful person and are capable and worthy of success. These beliefs will increase your self-confidence and shape your attitude, behaviour and actions to support you in achieving your goal.

Winston Churchill said, "Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." When you rephrase this failure into learning and really learn from your negative experience or result, you can regard this learning process as a success. And it will help you progress towards your goal.

Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill

Do not forget that your definition of success only depends on you and belongs to you. It doesn't matter what society considers as success or what the dictionary or social media influencers tell you success is. You are not accountable to anyone for your definition of success except yourself. Therefore, choose a definition that supports your motivation, increases your self-confidence and belief in your abilities to achieve your goal and helps you enjoy the activities you deploy and feel fulfilled, satisfied and successful while you work towards your goal.

I would like to bring here another definition that might inspire you. Margaret Thatcher considered success as 

a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose.

So, you can also think about what gives you joy and makes you happy. How do you contribute to other people's lives, to your closer or larger community and environment? When you see a higher purpose behind your goals and actions, the contribution to something bigger, more people's lives or a community's advancement, you feel more motivated, satisfied and fulfilled and experience more joy and happiness.