What is Your Definition of Success?

What is your definition of success? or How do you define success? The first step towards being successful is to define in your own terms what success means to you. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines success as – “The fact of getting or achieving wealth, respect, or fame.” A second definition is – “The correct or desired result of an attempt.”

The Oxford Dictionary defines success as – “The accomplishment of an aim or purpose” and a second definition is – “A person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity.”

You are the only person who intimately knows what you want to accomplish in life and what kind of achievement will have the greatest meaning, fulfillment and impact in your life.

One simple way to define your own success is to start by writing down the following six questions:

1. What do I want to accomplish in life?
2. Why do I want to accomplish it?
3. When will I accomplish it?
4. Where will I accomplish it?
5. How will I accomplish it?
6. How will I know that I have accomplished it?

Then write down your answers to each of the six questions.

Your answers need not be perfect; they should simply point you towards the destination that you want to reach. Keep looking at your success definition often and keep tweaking it as appropriate.

The “how will I accomplish it” question is the hardest to figure out upfront but the ‘reason why’ will keep you hanging in there as you chart a path. Your internal compass, ambition and desire will guide and lead you in the direction of your pursuit.

Find your reason for doing it, your passion, your vision, your desire, your urge to do what you are doing and continue doing it regardless of the time it takes or the challenges you face along the way – embrace the will to keep fighting, learning and enduring to make it through.

Examples of success can include being the very best that you can be at an activity such as cooking, painting, gardening, singing, working on your career, acting, starting a business, teaching, swimming, writing, managing, leading, coding, designing, coaching, blogging, being a good provider for your family, making a difference in your community etc.

Set for yourself high standards of aspirations, excellence and achievement. Utilize your skills, abilities and talents towards something specific that you are committed to doing.

The next step is to arm yourself with knowledge and information regarding your desired area of success. Research and find out what you need to do to achieve your success.

Success should not necessarily be in one single thing in your life it can also be a few specific areas or things that you want to pursue and accomplish.

Success is thinking of yourself like a snowflake that is at the top of a mountain and your job is to attach yourself to other snowflakes as you roll down the mountain until you become a tremendous force that will burst right through obstacles on your path to success.

Success also includes any set of actions or steps that you actively take to improve yourself. The objective being that your current self becomes better than your former self i.e. you become better today than you were yesterday, or one year ago, or five years ago.

Important ingredients of success include improving our contribution to the people and environment that surrounds us.

One of the best investments that you can make is to invest in improving yourself. Self-improvement is achieved through working on yourself and through working with others and through others. Nobody is self-sufficient, we all need others.

At all times have a mental image of what it is you want to achieve, imagine yourself as having achieved it and see yourself as a success.

What is your definition of success?

For more tips on success read 55 Tips on How to be Successful in Life