What does it mean to be successful, and how do you measure the success of your life? Is success relative, or are there underlying layers which are the same for everyone?
Let’s look at the definition of success:
- Success – the state or condition of meeting a defined range of expectations.
What one person views as being successful, another might view as being a failure. This boils down to your facets of goals, and how you define them.
In this article, I will be going over how success in life is determined, and the foundations on which paths to success emerge.
Let’s get to it.
Here are 7 powerful ways to measure the success of your life:
1. Gauge your career success
When a new day begins, how motivated are you to go to work? Do you dread going? Or are you content with your job?
Let’s consider these factors regarding your job satisfaction:
- Is your relationship with your manager healthy? Or does your boss dislike you?
- Do you enjoy working with your co-workers? Success as a team is vital.
- Are you making a desirable income? If not, have you tried negotiating a new salary with management?
- Do you perform well in your role?
If you answered ‘no’ to any of these, it’s possible having a life with success is not your case, currently, and it may be time to quit your job.
However, you shouldn’t be spontaneous with your decision to do this. Try making things better before you jump to an ultimatum. Give yourself the opportunity to mend things.
The key to business success is patience.
Maybe you’re simply in the wrong career. In order to succeed at life, you’ve got to think things through, rationally. Your job consumes an immense portion of your life, and so, if you become irrational and inconsistent with how you approach your work, it can create a huge imbalance in your life.
What’s the takeaway?
To accurately measure the success of your life, you’ve got to first analyze your job satisfaction. One thing that all successful entrepreneurs have in common, is that they think calmly, rationally, and always persevere while calculating their next move.
2. The secret of successful goals
There are several steps to success, and reaching your goals certainly takes the topping on the cake.
Your goals encompass all of which you are, who you want to be, and the things you do which, ultimately, define your satisfaction in life.
There are three hierarchies of goals:
- Your greatest desire in life—your end-game goal—the legacy for which the future will remember you by, through science, medicine, religion, economics, or whatever that legacy is.
- The goal of health—the goals to not only understand the importance of our physical well-being, healthy relationships, and grounded spirituality, but to act on them.
- Your micro engagements and pursuits—the many actions you make, in every moment of your life, which have an effect on essentially, everything.
Everyone should have goals which align with these grander branches. They are the key to the success of your individualism, and our civilization.
Engaging in hobbies is an excellent way to measure the success of your day-to-day life. Hobbies eliminate negativity and invoke creativity, which are factors of success, and they promote emotional satisfaction.
The thing to keep in mind for setting goals, of any kind, is that you need to have adequate energy levels to do it—mentally and physically. One of the best ways to get this energy is through inspiration, and by having the desire to change.
What’s the takeaway?
All men and women of success find their place in life by pursuing goals. Your goals are the core of who you are. And if you want to learn how to become a successful contributor in this world, you’ve got to set goals which reflect an optimal state of health, your greatest desires, and you’ve go to take action, now.
3. Using organization to measure success
Organization is one of the fundamentals for success, and it’s something all leaders and innovators have in common.
The successful mindset of a leader is organized, and methodical. Here are a few methods to achieve this:
- Build a road map for success using to-do lists.
- Don’t allow clutter to happen.
- Visualize for success by utilizing time-block methods, such as the Pomodoro Technique.
- Keep your email inbox organized. A neatly-sorted inbox is a great tool for success.
- Back up your computer files.
This list barely scratches the surface. For an in-depth analyses on organizational methods, check out this Ultimate 28-Step Guide on How To Be Organized.
So, we’ve got the organization of things. What about organizing your thoughts? If you are scatterbrained, it’s going to be difficult to keep track of what’s important to you—your priorities. You’ve got to have laser-sharp focus. What’s the secret? Practice.
What’s the takeaway?
If you’re wondering how to measure the success of your life, personally and professionally, reflect on how organized you are. Being organized is one of the commandments of prosperity—the laws of success, and it’s necessary if you want to innovate and build something from the ground-up.
4. Successful lives are passionate
Passion is one of those things that can be hard to define for everyone. Finding your passion is one of the pathways for success. But you’ve got to first understand what it means to be passionate.
There are two types of passion:
- Emotional passion — where you are enthusiastic towards or desire someone or something.
- Philosophical passion — your instinctive and primitive drives as a human being, which you must restrain, channel, develop and sublimate in order to be possessed of wisdom.
To be successful in life (as you define it), it’s important to fill the void in your heart that yearns to burn bright, and to give you purpose and meaning. Everyone has a purpose and calling in life, but, unfortunately, the weight of figuring it out falls on your shoulders.
One great method of finding this meaning is to think back on what your childhood dreams were. Pursuing those dreams as an adult may be what you need to stay motivated for success.
However, don’t expect this to solely be your answer. Not everyone may be passionate about the things which they enjoyed as a kid. But it’s a great reference to use, and it can be very effective.
Remember: success is not final.
What you define as success, now, may not have the same successful meaning later in life. For instance, I once found great success being a beloved barber. But as my aspirations and desires in life changed, so did my idea of what it means to be successful.
Now, I find success in writing—sharing knowledge with an audience that will help to improve their lives. Do you know how I figured this out about myself? By reading.
There are so many benefits of reading, including finding inspiration and encouragement, and learning the secrets of success shared by those who have achieved it.
What’s the takeaway?
Having passion takes the crown for being the greatest principle for success. Without passion, there is no inspiration. And without inspiration, there is no drive to persevere during times of uncertainty.
5. Health as a principal of success
Success isn’t just about fulfilling intrinsic desires that give you purpose and meaning. It’s also about making healthy choices.
Not all successful people are healthy, physically, and mentally, but they strive to make healthy decisions to get there. This includes things such as eating healthy foods that promote optimal mood function and making sound business decisions to be a successful entrepreneur.
If you fear your health, you will also fear to succeed in your life’s conquest.
It’s difficult to pursue your goals and change the world when your body isn’t up to par. This is especially true for your mindset. As we both know, there are many cases where millionaires—which is a feat some define as being successful, struggle with their mental health.
Having bad mental health, like suffering from anxiety, can be extremely perturbing, and can lead to a rocky road of finding a life of success.
Here are a few signs you should work on your mental health:
- You are tense and restless all the time.
- Your immune system is weak. (Try this diet.)
- Every day, you are constantly worrying about things.
- You’re always angry without reason.
- Sleeping 6 hours or less every day.
- You avoid social interactions.
If this is you, try to bring your health front-and-center, and make it your priority.
What’s the takeaway?
One of the most profound habits of success is ensuring you are in good health. This is one of the three foundations of goals, and it will be hard to measure the success of your life if you aren’t in optimal health.
6. Impact creates pathways to success
What does ‘success’ mean to you? Is it donating to charitable organizations? Getting involved with efforts such as helping to maintain balance in our environment?
No matter the cause, if you are impacting someone, or something, then it’s worth it. You shouldn’t ever feel like donating your time, or a single dollar isn’t making a difference.
It doesn’t matter how much money you earn. Anyone can make an impact.
According to Tony Robbins, someone who makes $20,000 per year or less gives twice as much as someone who makes $100,000 per year.
So, as you can see, having money does not mean you make more of an impact. Impact is made by people who are inspired to change things, and in such ways like promoting happiness by spreading laughter.
It’s everyone’s duty to make the world a better place. Rather that be through your job, giving your time and resources, or innovating technology.
Failure to succeed happens when you fail to care. If you care enough, you will keep trying until failure becomes success.
I read an inspiring quote recently, and I’d like to share it with you.
“The only difference between the master and the novice is that the master has failed more times than the novice has tried.” – Stephen McCranie.
One of the biggest obstacles we face when making a difference is fearing that our efforts are too small, or that they aren’t good enough. This simply isn’t true. Every effort is worth it. You are worth it. Success with failure is certain. You’ve got to at least try.
What’s the takeaway?
One of the best habits to be successful is doing what you can to make an impact, no matter the size of the crater. Rome wasn’t built in a day, right?
7. Relationships help you succeed at life
There are almost eight billion people amongst 195 countries on our planet.
It’s a difficult number to fathom. But what’s even more mind boggling, is that only a hundred years ago, the world population was a mere 1.6 billion people.
Credit: Statista.com
As a species, we rely so deeply on each other. We’re connected at a core level.
Having such great numbers increases our chance of survival, but it also means there are billions of different viewpoints out there. So, it’s easy for you to be misunderstood by others.
This means that if you want to find success in a career, or otherwise, any other area in life, you’ve got to be patient, and not assume the worst in people.
Not assuming things is a great way to start (and maintain) relationships, which has a direct connection to success.
Healthy relationships are important because they allow you to connect with others through human emotion. They motivate you to reach your goals, and they let you acquire your extrinsic needs.
Some of these needs are things like yearning to feel accepted and liked, and receiving feedback to get insight on yourself, such as when you talk too much.
We need people to be there when we fail and succeed.
Without them, our failures hurt more, and our successes feel less impactful.
“Your need for acceptance can make you invisible in this world.” – Jim Carrey (I’m not one to quote celebrities [I don’t know, it’s just kind of weird], but I really like this one.)
An important thing to remember, is that it’s not the quantity of relationships that determines how success is measured, it’s the quality. You may have 5,000 Facebook friends, but does their support amount to what you receive from your 2-3 closest relationships?
Who in this world is truly rooting for you? Whoever they are, stick close to them. Embrace them; These people are necessary for you to adopt a successful mindset.
What’s the takeaway?
The way to succeed in life is by having strong, healthy relationships that support you. You don’t need many, but you need enough to push you to your fullest potential, and to help you reach your goals and make new dreams.
Conclusion
Success is what you make of it. What one person finds in a scenario to be successful, another might see as a failure. Examples of this are sports, politics, and religion.
There will always be winners, and there will always be losers. It’s what happens before, during, and after that determines how you might define success.
There are many mindsets for success; they are different for everyone. But what’s not different, are the fundamentals that we all share. These fundamentals have been outlined in this guide, which I hope has helped you in some way.
So get out there! Do what you must do in this life, and find your success. Only you can find it, because only you define it.
That is all, friends. Good luck. I’m wishing on success for all of you.
Here’s a quick recap of 7 powerful ways to measure the success of your life:
- Gauge your career success.
- The secret of successful goals.
- Using organization to measure success.
- Successful lives are passionate.
- Health as a principal of success.
- Impact creates pathways to success.
- Relationships help you succeed at life.
That’s all folks! Thanks for reading.
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