How do you measure success? What’s the standard you use – tangible? material? intangible? outward appearance? Is success something in the distant future? Or… can you experience it daily? If you don’t believe you can find success daily then rethink your definition. Small successes as you move toward the goal are great incentives.
Webster defines success as: degree or measure of succeeding; favorable or desired outcome. These ‘descriptions’ of success are ambiguous at best. The reason is that success is in the eye of the beholder, it is individually defined. What may be a triumph for one may be only a checkpoint for another. Some define success in terms of fame and fortune – which, to me, is a limiting definition. While I can’t define success for you, it is critical that you define it for yourself. Otherwise you may find yourself constantly striving without any measure of… success.
Even when you have lofty goals you can experience successes along the way. How you view and define success is critical to this. If success is only found at the final attainment then discouragement has an easier entrance into the journey. Discouragement is a great saboteur to success. Actually… the more your goals are ‘lofty’ (defined as long term) the more important it is to have goals earmarked for success along your path.
Successes as you move toward goal attainment are benchmarks, vantage points from which you can look back and see where you’ve come from and incentives to move toward the next one. What you don’t always realize is that it is also an impetus for others who are watching your progress. Success, and the opposite situation, is a great teacher as is our reaction to it.
…but, what do you think? what do you believe?
