Author: Evelyn Marinoff / Source: Lifehack
Success is an enchanting word. It’s the magical stardust we all want to be touched by. It’s a goal on its own for many too, a motivator, a reason to wake up every day with the drive to take on the world and “have it all.”
Luckily, there is barely a shortage of advice on how you can thrive and prosper.
In fact, a simple question to Google on “how to be successful” yields the impressive 815 million results.Why is success so popular of a notion? Because it feels good to be at the top, to see your hard work pay off, to be smiled upon by the good-fate fairy. It’s a high like no other.
But every so often, success feels like a chimera more than a real thing— a lot like happiness, in fact. We talk, read and write books about it, listen to wise men and women coach us on “how to get there” or of the “habits of the ultra successful.”
And yet—it’s a tantalizing feeling—you are never completely satisfied with yourself, because there is someone who is always more “successful”—richer, more popular, better looking, has more friends.
So, how can you ever know with certainty that you have finally made it? Is there a measure of success?
Does the magnitude of your success depend on the amount of money you have in the bank, the number of friends on social media, the amount of times you have been recognized for something, your GPA score, the university were accepted into, or perhaps—how many lives you’ve changed?
The answer is that it all depends on how you define success for yourself and how you choose to measure it.
What is success really?
Before we launch into exploring the above questions, let’s briefly review what the greates can tell us about the meaning of success.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the most common definition of success is:
“Favorable or desired outcome, the attainment of wealth, favor or eminence.”
But is there more to it than fame and money?
“In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are.” — Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group
“Success isn’t how much money you have. Success is not what your position is. Success is how well you do what you do when nobody else is looking.” — John Paul DeJoria, billionaire entrepreneur
“The definition of success is waking up in the morning with a smile on your face, knowing it’s going to be a great day.” — Mark Cuban, billionaire investor
“I measure success by how many people love me.” — Warren Buffet, billionaire investor.
“It is also nice to feel like you made a difference — inventing something or raising kids or helping people in need.” — Bill Gates, Microsoft cofounder
What isn’t success
Based on the above ruminations of these truly successful people (according to society’s opinion too), success starts to shape more as an internal feeling, a sense of purpose and of fulfilment rather than the pursuit of accolades from others or a large bank account.
Although all these individuals are undoubtedly wealthy, notice that no one mentions “having millions in the bank” as a definition of success. Nor things along the lines of more followers on social media, making others envious or having an expensive lifestyle.
This is not what success is or how it should be measured.
How success is measured
There are several “common” (not necessarily genuine) measures of success, by society definitions. Although we may not agree with all, accept them or even live by them, they are still worth noting:
Wealth
Money and material possessions are sadly, still a rather universal (although often very deceptive) equivalent of success. If you are rich, then you must be successful, right?
There are many flaws in this assumption which we will review a bit later, but for now, let’s say that wealth may indeed, accompany success—but it should be viewed as more of a consequence of your achievements rather than a goal in itself.
Popularity
With wealth often comes popularity. The two notions are frequently viewed as close cousins, especially when we think about famous actors, writers, or entrepreneurs.
By extension, we also have the online influencers—that is, success may sometimes be expressed by the number of the people who follow you on social media and whom you can reach and impact with your content and posts.
External vs Internal
Wealth and popularity are some of the external measures of success. They are somewhat more tangible and easier to compare.
There is, however, a whole other universe of success definitions which are invisible, can’t be easily measured and are highly personalized.
Internal evaluators are better gauges of success, though, as they are set by us and thus—follow our own life trajectory. More on this later.
Comparisons
A very common way to know if you have “made it” is to look at your neighbour’s yard and check how you fare against them.
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