Everyone has his or her own way to define success. This makes it a subjective idea that’s somewhat tricky to pin down. Despite the fact that success has generally been defined by wealth, being rich is not everything. The truth about success is that it can’t be measured in dollar signs, only in experiences.
Here are 10 alternative ways to define success:
1. Happiness
The purest evidence of true success is happiness. If you are rich in happiness and feel fulfilled in your life, no one can take that away from you.
2. Service
Success can be defined as the amount of people you have helped through your life to make their lives better. Winston Churchill once said, “You make a life by what you get, but you make a living by what you give.”
3. Failure
Success can be defined as understanding failure, because without understanding failure, you will not understand the true value that success holds. “You can’t appreciate the sun without a bit of rain.”
4. Hard Work
Success is when you know you have done your best in everything that you have set out to do in your life, no matter what. Take this quote from Swami Sivananda: “Put your heart, mind, intellect and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.”
5. Motivation
Success is about being self-motivated and having the right attitude to life, believing that you are capable of achieving goals. Without this, how else could you see yourself gaining success?
6. Abundance
Having a profusion of family, friends, love, and good health is success in its own right.
7. Overcoming Fear
If you do things that challenge you, take you out of your comfort zone, take a calculated risk and achieve, that is truly an undeniable success on your part.
8. Learning
Being able to learn something new every single day of your life is success indeed. We never stop learning, it is a life-long process; successful people would understand the infinite nature of learning all the time.
9. Determination
Never giving up is one of the best ways to define success. You can never fail if you keep on trying and persevere, and sometimes this is the best way to become successful. If you do not give up when things get tough for you, this is when you know success is the only option you want to have.
10. Choosing Your Path
Success is about you being able to control what happens in the present, and being able to see how your present will impact your future. You are the controller of your destiny, and you can impact what is to happen next in your life story. Success is when you realise this and take your life into your own hands instead of leaving it to your external locus of control.
Success is everything that you want it to mean to you. Define your success and achieve it!
Arveen is a young blogger from London who enjoys writing poetry, playing violin, and motivating others to overcome life challenges. She lives by the mantra: Once in a while, blow your own mind. Define success on your own merit, achieve it on your own rules and build a life you are proud of and empowered by.