Jan 21, 2011

What is success?

Success (n.) - achievement of intention: the achievement of something planned or attempted

Have you ever noticed that somehow in the process of try to attain whatever level of success we are working toward, we lose sight of what success really is?
It is so easy to forget about the small achievements and only focus on the progress of the long term goal. And if your long term goal is a lengthy work in process, it can feel like you aren’t achieving success.

So, my question to you, what IS success?

I learned a long time ago that success is manifested in many different ways. Success is in the small goals, the short term goals, or the completion of a day’s to-do list or task, etc. Success is how you feel about YOURSELF and your purpose.

Are you happy? Are you doing something that you love? Do you have a healthy family?

If you answered yes to even just one of those questions, you have achieved a level of success in your life.

I remember when I first started my home based business four years ago, I achieved a level of success my very first week in business, which was very rewarding. That one success turned in to two, then three, and so on until just 6 weeks into starting my business, I achieved my first promotion. I was definitely at a high spot in my new business and I felt invincible! I set unrealistic goals in my excitement and when they didn’t happen, I was crushed. I felt like a complete and utter failure.

But was I a failure? Of course not!

I had completely lost sight of the many successes I had already achieved. I focused on the long term goal and in haste didn’t set a realistic timeline for achieving it.

It took me a little bit of time to come to this realization but when I did, my life and my business turned around.

I began to reflect on my past successes and the current successes I had achieved but failed to notice.

Success doesn’t have to come in big packages. It is the small things that lead you to the big things.

So, if you are feeling discouraged in whatever you are doing. Stop and think about all the things you have set out to do and achieved. Even if it is as simple as fully completing a to-do list you made for today, you had an intention and you completed it.

After all, you have to walk before you run.

2 comments:

Cheryl Wilms said...

What a lovely post. I believe that our failures are only failures if we believe them to be so. I think what most perceive to be failures is actually truly lessons towards achieving success. So awesome :) Thank you for posting a link on The WAHM Solution on Facebook.

snglbby said...

For me, success is completing ANY goal with satisfaction. If I am happy with myself, feel satisfied, and accomplished what I set out to do, then I know I succeeded. Goals can be minute or gigantic. The size doesn't matter as long as it gets done.