How Do You Define Success?
If you haven’t defined what success is for you, how would you ever know if you’ve attained it? The answer; you wouldn’t know if you were successful, and you might miss the fact that you are. The most successful people have clearly defined what success is for them. They are not ignorant of what it is they are trying to accomplish. It is a clear target that is meaningful to them. They know what they are doing to get where they want to go. After all, we don’t want to get to a destination only to find out it isn’t what we wanted.
Though you may have varying definitions of success for different areas of your life, the five things they should all have in common is: it must be simple, specific, strategic, scalable, and significant.
Here are some things to think about as you define what success is:
It Must Be Simple
Success can’t be complicated. It should be easily defined. Clare Boothe Luce, one of the first women to serve in the U.S. Congress, famously told President John F. Kennedy, “A great man is one sentence.” One day when you’re gone, your life will be summed up in a few words. The good news is you can choose what those words will be about.
You have the opportunity to define what success is for you now. Don’t overcomplicate the process. Clarity is accomplished by keeping things easily memorable. Keep it short and to the point. Albert Einstein said about complexities, “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.” Your definition of success must be clearly recognized when you’ve achieved it.
It Must Be Specific
Success must be specifically measurable. It has to have a quantifiable outcome. For example, to say that your definition of financial success is to be wealthier doesn’t cut it. It needs to be more like this example: To be debt free, with an annual income of $x, and giving x% to charity.
You must be able to know if you are living successfully. Saying you want to be wealthier is like chasing infinity; how would you know if you caught it? The more specific you are, the better equipped you’ll be to make it happen. It’s incredible what activates inside of you when your mind locks on a particular target. Author Napoleon Hill said, “When your desires are strong enough, you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve.”
It Must Be Strategic
Success has to be an intentional endeavor. We can’t treat success like little Johnny did. One day, little Johnny got his bow and arrows out to work on his target practice. He pulled arrows out of his quiver and proceeded to shoot in every direction he felt like. He then would walk up to wherever the arrow had landed and draw a target right around it, making it a bull’s eye every time. Several arrows and targets later, his sister said, “You don’t do target practice that way. You draw the target, then shoot the arrow.” Johnny responded: “I know that, but if you do it my way, you never miss!”
Unlike little Johnny, we can’t just let our life go any direction it takes us and then draw a target around wherever we end up and call it a success. We need to be maximizing our potential by creating the success we desire. We have to be intentional about what our lives are about. Don’t just throw random numbers, ideas, and metrics without knowing why you want to reach them. So many people throw arbitrary ideas out when defining success, but to make it count, be strategic about everything.
It Must Be Scalable
Success must be attainable and practical, but it should also stretch you to scale higher than you’ve ever been. Success has to be something that challenges you to elevate. It must cause you to reach further than you’ve ever reached and dream bigger than you’ve ever dreamt. If your dreams don’t scare you, you’re probably not dreaming big enough. Your definition should stretch you to greater heights. Artist Michelangelo said, “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” Your definition of success should be just out of reach of what you currently can do, so it causes you to scale up to a higher level. Never belittle your dreams because of an inner fear that tells you it’s too much. Instead, dare to believe in yourself.
It Must Be Significant
Success must embody a worthy cause. At the end of our life, we want to make a significant impact in the world. We will have wanted to know our life mattered somehow, someway. There was an old country song written years ago called Live Like You Were Dying. In it, county music star Tim McGraw encouraged us to live life to the fullest with no regrets. It received many accolades, including a Grammy Award for song of the year. Regardless of whether you liked the song, it had a powerful message.
We all need to awaken the desire inside of us to make every day count. We must know that our effort is successful in living life to the fullest. The only way to know this is to make our definition of success deserving of a significant impact. Make sure you leave a legacy because of the difference you desire to create. Only living for yourself is a very lonely life. Henry Ford said, “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.”
Take some time to sit down and craft your definitions of success for each area of your life. Don’t rush through it, but be methodical about it. The first step to being highly successful is knowing what you are trying to do.
