A Key to Success – Give it Your Definition

If you want to know a key to success…then read on!

Have you ever considered the definition of success?  It’s a very popular word in our culture today.  And yet, it’s a tricky word as well.  You know I’ve discovered over the years in doing personal coaching that people are very confused about success in their own lives.  In fact, I think that we have attached a very narrow usage and view of success. A critical success strategy and key to success then is giving it our own definition.

Commonly, we would look at someone and say, “Oh, that person’s successful if they…” own a nice car, have a huge house, and have a lot of money in the bank.  And perhaps, on some level, that’s true.

But I would like to suggest to you, as food for thought, that success is much broader than those limited definitions.  In fact, Webster’s dictionary defines success as getting the outcomes that you want.  That’s right, getting the outcomes that you want.  And therein lies my challenge.

I would like to encourage you to take the time to define what success means to you.  Ask yourself, what outcomes would I like to have in my life, both in my professional life and in my personal life?

You know, I had a conversation with my neighbor who very much wants to be a great dad.  His being able to become a great dad is an outcome he purposes from his heart and that when achieved in his mind will make him a successful person.

I know another person who has a dream of having a small house out in the country.  Now, by someone else’s view, that might not be deemed successful.  And yet, to that person, to achieve that outcome, that would be great success.

I see many people today living out other people’s views of success because they’ve not taken the time to define their own.  I believe that people would be much happier and have deeper levels of life satisfaction if they would take the time to define their own success. I also believe that without success planning, they will stay on the hamster wheel of life.

Let me encourage you to take time in the next week or two, take an hour or a weekend and jot out what that is.  Now, as your life changes and evolves, I believe that list might evolve and change, too.  However, at each stage of the journey, you’ll have continual life satisfaction, continual success as you move throughout your life.

I wish you great success! JoAnn

Final Note: If you need some assistance or advice with that planning, don’t hestiate to contact me: joann@joanncorley.com