How do you define success?
I'm trying to work out how to live a rich and fulfilling life. As such I'm interested in the ways people define successful lives - especially in defining success outside common ideas such as work, money and possessions - which don't really appeal to me.
So my question is:
How do you define success? What will need to happen in your life for you to consider yourself successful? Or to put it another way what will your life have to look like for you to "have made it"?
If you like - there's a follow up question:
Why is this your definition of success and not another one?
For example, if you define a successful life as having a loving family rather than a mountain of money, why do you place a higher value on family than on money?
Good Answers (2)
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
I define success by going to sleep at night with a warm heart and a calm mind. Knowing I will wake up the next day, feeling the same and knowing that I am constatly working on being a kind and honest person.
More Answers (32)
Mohamed T.
Information Coordinator at Ontario Multifaith Council
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If the supervisor, or colleague feel you are indispensable--you are most dependable, most trustworthy, and sincere in your behavior / action.
Success is when you look back at what you did and you're totally satisfied. You know you did your best and gained new experience and knowledge. Every step forward is a success.
Kat S.
Revenue Growth Strategies | M&A Preparation | Market Development | Product Strategies | Branding | B2B
Success is defined by achieving or surpassing your desired outcome (from a project to your life, it doesn't matter). It's different for eveybody. If you want to be viewed as successful by the the society at large, you may be up for a serious disappointment as, again, everyone views it differently.
Success also connotes the completion of a phase which I don't like to apply to life. I'd like to view life as a continuum of growth.
Brian G.
at Brandorr Group
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Developing the skill to set goals and meet them.
Sandra V.
Realtor
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David,
Depending on our natural orientation and gifting -- I think there could be a wide variety of definitions. A few holiday's past -- my brother was stranded in the D.C. airport and there was a well-known long-time Civil rights activist -- without his normal entourage. When we spoke on his arrival – I commented “on holiday’s – it’s hard to get the people you have on payroll to hang around if you are a horses read end.” I still believe that. Sometimes it helps me to drill down to the reality that it doesn’t’ have to do with money. How many people have I helped today. Money makes you more of what you already are….and without it – a mighty Inconvenient lifestyle. Additionally, I’ve seen some real “horses” get a grip on their “gifting’s” and use them to benefit others in a way that changed my mind about them. I could see them as successful. Isn’t that the beauty of our human existence: To grow and to forgive. I personally feel successful and encouraged to move forward when:
• I creatively figure out a solution to a problem
• I prove to myself and others that I can do what I set out to do.
• I change things for the better.
• I am part of a dynamic team.
• I find beauty and possibilities in all things.
• I am trusted and respected.
• I positively influence the decisions of others.
• I gift myself with clarity.
• I see the tangible proof of my efforts.
• I acknowledge and celebrate closure in projects.
• I maintain a healthy, balanced perspective as I move forward.
Hey David,
Excellent question. Success is a very fluid phenomenon and will vary for every individual. For me, success is a variety of things.
First and foremost, I am not sucessful yet. It is a work in progress. Success is a journey where you take small steps towards a bigger goal (could be a material or spiritual, its your goal), and periodically look back to reflect that you reached a milestone and you did it the 'right way'. If you only keep the final goal in mind, you will miss out on the journey part. As the Bhagwad Geeta points out, "You have the right to work, without the attachement to the result". It comes back to if you have the taken the morally and ethically correct path, the result cannot be wrong. Its common sense.
For me, I have both material and spirirual goals that I am working towards. One important thing that I try to follow is that I work towards making the world a better place every day, not by any monumental task, but by trying to do small acts of generosity. A smile to a stranger. A dollar to a homeless person. Whatever.
I am in no way close to my goals, but I am loving my journey. I have commited mistakes along the way, but I learn from them and move on for better.
Thats how I would describe success.
Thanks
I think that success as we tend to see it (in western society) is largely a fallacy of logic. We tend to view it as a destination, after which, we have "arrived" and everything is better or done or has purpose.
I think a better view might be that of a journey. In other words, "Am I headed in the right direction?" To ask ourselves the following questions:
1) Am I making the most of my life - my time, my relationships, my strengths?
2) Have I ever tried to reach the edge of what I can do? Have I allowed myself to fail?
3) Does my life have significance? Have I been part of something bigger than me and my little world? When I die, will it matter whether I have lived - and if it does, will the effect of my life be positive?
I think that if you can ask yourself these questions (as often as you must) and answer "Yes", each day can be a step towards success.
If I can make a positive difference in someone's life, then I feel successful. I do not see money as a measure of success or lack of it as a measure of failure. Think of all of the famous people who have been successful at making large somes of money while failing to keep their marriages together.
Not having to worry about what success means
I believe we are all projections of the same (and unique) intelligence. Success to me is achieving the reunification of all these projections into the one entity. I do my part trying to see that divine element in all people. There is no such thing as individual success, if any of us fails, we all fail.
Jean Fahmy -.
Chief Executive Officer at HBT Management Corp - www.delivertrust.com
Great question, and all great answers. I strive to be able to look back on my professional life and affirm :
"I've been able to go to the end of all my ideas, my projects and endeavors" or, more simply...
Never having to say "What if ... ?"
Ray M.
Energy expert, educator, award winning sculptor
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My idea od success in life is knowing that I am using myself to the fullest. As far as we know this is the only life we get here on earth and I have no intentions of "saving myself" for my old age.
For me there is not "making it". There is being in action fulfilling what turns you on.
That's success, and it isn't a destination, it's a way of living.
Johnathan L.
Business Advisor
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Hi David
Personally, I define success as doing something positive that makes me happy.
Whether it is achieving that sales target, reaching another milestone, have the time to spend with my love ones, being healthy, or having enough money to buy a nice car.
Cheers - J.
Robert F.
Applications Trainer at The Computer Workshop
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Doing the most that I can every day for God, spouse, family, friends, and country ... there cannot be any more. If this take more money or a different job, then I simply work harder.
Jonah H.
Chief Consumer Coach (CCC) at EXIT3A.com
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Having kids was great when we were farmers. Procreating actually created something of value: workers. We fed and clothed them in return for labor. A win-win. Times change and with change comes, well, change. We are no longer farmers. We are corporate citizens. We produce products, technology, ideas, and paperwork. We do not have any need for growing a crop of workers because we do not have any crops. The capitalist view is simple. Kids = expenses with very little, if any, Monetary Return On Investment. A human is, by default, a consumer. A consumer without corporate support (job) is a drain on our consumer culture and therefore a sap on the system. How many consumers can we create before there is nobody left to produce the products for consumption? What’s that? You say you got that nurturing instinct. Get a pet.
Economist extraordinaire Milton Friedman, the embodiment of the die-hard free-market capitalist, cast this bit of advice to the cheering herds on Wall Street: “Profits first, second, and third; people last.” Words to live, and obviously, die by.
Links:
Aventino T.
Owner at Cleverway and Professional Partner at EKSPER - Interim Management Group
Success is opportunity plus competence.
Now, try and enjoy your success!
Best regards.
If I can rest my head on my pillow at night knowing full well I've done my level best and I've enjoyed doing it, and somehow have found the equilibrium between life and work committments, I consider myself a success. I have generally found that when those three conditions are met simultaneously, the money follows.
an example of a successful career for some (a garbage man, for example - who loves my son and toots his horn for him every friday, he's happy and seems to love what he does and definitely puts a hard day's work each day) may not be the same as others (someone who commutes 2 hours each day, brings home 500k, but often does not see his children during the week because he leaves before they awaken and returns when they are already in bed).
Kam N.
Hedge Fund Manager, Venture Capitalist, Commodity Trader, Mega Broker, Investment Banker
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David,
On a personal note: Success is a constant gauge between you and perceived you; and being able to bridge that gap. the smaller the gap more successful you are.
With regard to others: Success is defined as not where you are in your life but what obstacles you overcame to get there.
Sheilah E.
Owner, ★SME Management:.......... Business Management and Accounting Consultant
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I am successful because I can look myself in the face and know I am doing the right thing for the right reason. I sleep well at night because I never try to harm others to get ahead. I have wonderful children and friends and my life is full and rewarding. That above all else makes me successful.
Sheilah
Sheryar M.
Management Consultant / Massage Therapist / Organisational Psychologist / Lean Coach
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Your questions:
How do you define success?
What will need to happen in your life for you to consider yourself successful?
What will your life have to look like for you to "have made it"?
For example, if you define a successful life as having a loving family rather than a mountain of money, why do you place a higher value on family than on money?
All above questions do implicitely point to a financial value driver. You are looking for acceptable, viable alternative views which could in your eyes compete with or justify moving away from the view of a reach for financial independence.
The questions are understandable, but the answers might not all help you, in the sense that what you are trying to reach is the very definition of your goal. When you have achieved that, you have been succesful at achieving that. If, on the other hand, you wonder whether reaching that objective is seen as successful in the eyes of others, then you value the level of being considered successful, rather than achieving results for yourself.
I want to have a relaxing life, where healthy food, friendly people, a nice home, with sauna, fresh flowers, and no financial worries, are all a reality. That is the goal. In order to reach these things, I need to work towards that every day. If during these days, I manage to achieve progress towards, and not away from these objectives, then I am being succesful. Being successful not in HAVING REACHED the target, but rather being succesful in REACHING OUT for these targets.
I am working on financial independence. Currently I have about 400$ in monthly income from after tax intrest payments. Not enough yet, but since I am still about 30 years away from the typical retirement age, sufficient for now.
I am working on the fresh flowers; they are partially grown in my own terrace garden, partially collected from occasional long walks, and partially bought in flower stores where through regular orders, special orders can now be placed. I intend to cherish that relationship, as it helps me to achieve the target.
I am regularly consulting expert friends on good places for bread, farmer's markets, etc, in order to get nice fresh veggies, meat, herbs etc. These moments are quite inspiring.
Etc.
Every thing I do, helps me towards achieving the things I set forth as being my objectives.
I am on the way to achieve them.
Therefore, I am successful. Regardless of what others might or might not say about that. I measure my success by the progress I make reaching my goals, not by the level of compliance of my goals with the goals one should have in order to be successful, according to the majority of society.
Tim J.
Project Management, Product Management, Business Analysis and Web Production
"My God, they actually PAY me to do this!"
"Thanks, Dad. I love you."
Not necessarily in that order. ;)
My favorite Maya Angelou quote answers this well:
"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it."
James M.
Tecnical Support Engineer at Symantec
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Continuous growth.
Shaun J.
Wills, Trusts & Estates Attorney & Law Professor
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Success is finding and fulfilling my purpose.
Shaun
I like what actor Ralph Fiennes says about success: "The people I consider successful are so because of how they handle their responsibilities to other people, how they approach the future, people who have a full sense of the value of their life and what they want to do with it. I call people ‘successful’ not because they have money or their business is doing well but because, as human beings, they have a fully developed sense of being alive and engaged in a lifetime task of collaboration with other human beings -- their mothers and fathers, their family, their friends, their loved ones, the friends who are dying, the friends who are being born. Success is all about being able to extend love to people not in a big, capital letter sense but in the everyday. Little by little, task by task, gesture by gesture, word by word."
Links:
Regina Y.
Founder and President of The Pixel Project & Award-nominated Communications Professional with a Social Conscience
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Success is living a life that, at the end of my life, I would be able to say: 'I had no regrets and I would not have done anything different.'
To get what you want in life is success.....what say ?
