What does success mean to you? 

It’s a simple question but if you ask 100 random people, I bet you’d get 70 different answers. Growing up, success often meant studying hard for good grades to get into a prestigious college.  After college, it shifted to finding a good, stable career then meeting someone and starting a family.  Is the family with 2.5 kids, a dog, and white picket fence still the standard?

Now that we’re a few weeks into the new year, I started to ponder what a ‘successful’ 2018 would look like.  It then got me thinking about how we define ‘success.’ I grew up thinking success was directly correlated to the amount of money you make and your net worth.  Don’t get me wrong, I like money and have milestones I’m aiming to hit but for the sake of not disclosing specific numbers, here are a few of my non-monetary goals for success.

• Leaving a situation/place better than the way I found it. This could be as simple as helping a friend or loved one with something in their life (health, exercise or simply being present for them).
• Being there for someone in need with no expectation of receiving anything in return. I recently found this volunteer opportunity (https://www.crisistextline.org/) to help teens through text message. Although I don’t start training until the end of February, it’s something I’m looking forward to.  I always wanted a younger sibling to be an example for – luckily I have two amazing siblings I look up to.
• Focusing on the many things that went right in a given situation instead of the one thing that didn’t. You woke up early, got your workout in before work, hit your to-do list, closed that big deal you’d been working on for weeks then ended the day with a sarcastic call from your significant other.  That one mistake/failure blinds you to the rest of the positive things that happened.  It’s one of the hardest things I struggle with but as long as I’m aware of it and catch myself, it will only get better.

How has your view of success changed over the years and how much has it been influenced by friends, family or the media?  I have definitely been guilty of comparing myself to my friends, families and even people I don’t know, especially today with the proliferation of social media. Every time I find myself comparing, I try to catch and remind myself that everyone is different and on their own journey.

I can think of a time in my life (about 10 years ago) when just getting out of bed was viewed as a ‘success.’  When I look back and see how far I’ve come from that point in my life, I can proudly say that that experience helped mold me into the man I am today.  So what does success mean to you (comments welcome)?

QOTP: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal.  It is the courage to continue that counts.” –Winston Churchill