Many of us make heroes out of billionaires noted in the Forbes Rich List. Or beauty queens for their mesmerizing sashays, oozing confidence, and smart intellects. Or top athletes for their prowess, strength, and inhumane agility.
We want to be like them too. Where we failed is because we don't truly know what we want for our lives!
These people we look up to? Even before they've started to run their race, they have already figured out their desired destination on their heads. They've made plans on how to attack the mountain of challenges before them, they've created roadmaps and they've predetermined end-goal.
Do you ever wonder why many of us don't make it? Because we like too many things!
If we see Joe traveling all over the world, one country after the other, we want it. If we learned that one of our colleagues has hit their financial target so he could retire early by living a simple lifestyle, we want it too.
How can we possibly do both without sacrificing the other? Unfocused goals invite confusion like aiming for everything, and hitting at nothing.
If there's one takeaway I want you to get from this post, it is this: Success is not what the media, the culture, your friends, or even your family tells you it is.
Success is what you tell yourself!
Of course, these outside influences will keep bombarding our throats with their definition of success, gorging us with mental images of perfection, red-blooded robots programmed to conform, a surety of pawns to widen the treasuries of the shrewd.
But hey, it's not like you don't have a choice of what's right for you or not. You've got to learn to let go of someone else's rendition of success if you want to crave a path of your own: this could be having lots of money, jet setting all over the world, fame, accumulation of luxury items.
No, I'm not coming against anyone who wants this from them. In fact, I love to travel too. The point is to figure out what you want because others' version of success is personalized to them, tailor-made to their own bents, their experience, background, context.
Ask yourself. Is someone's brand of success what I want for myself? Will someone's variation of happiness make me happy when I've attained them?
[ Photo by Doran Erickson on Unsplash ]
Why It's Important to Define Your Own Version of Success?
Here's why...
1. You Will No Longer Feel Animosity Over Your Friend's or Someone Else's Success
A study titled "Envy on Facebook: A Hidden Threat to Users’ Life Satisfaction?" concluded that those who experience negative emotions while seeing their friends on vacation, or those finding happiness in relationships, or experiencing success in life while browsing Facebook results in an overall decline in their life in general.Tell you what, you don't have to be numbered with the Negative Nelly's.
These people who are living their best lives? Make muses of them. Inspirations.
If you can, why not learn from them. Ask them questions. Pick their brains. Never overlook the time, effort, and money they've invested to get there. When you realize this, then you can truly rejoice with those who rejoice.
2. You'll Focus On What You Truly Want In Life
When you know what you truly want, then you can focus on your own goals and values.Where do you think you'll be in the next 5 years? 10? 20? What will you be doing by then? If you are running a business, can you see it expanding? In your career, do you see yourself promoted or growing? Finances, will you hit your goals?
Make plans for your future. Don't remain in ruts. Satisfaction and happiness can be found in your progress, in knowing that you put in your best effort, that you did a job well done, and you made the best use of your time.
3. You'll Stop Competing With Others.
Contentment is hard to spot these days with the marketing ads pounding us with all the things you must-have to make you happy, the envy of your community.So long as you view life as a competition, you'll focus on winning. This means you'll have a hard time building healthy relationships with people since you keep on one-upping them rather than building them up.
And guess what? No one ever wins that game. There will always be someone better, richer, having more. Focus on making yourself better than who you were yesterday instead.
4. You'll Be More Content
So what if you're not experiencing a level of success according to the world's standards? It doesn't matter! So long as you've defined your own version of success and working on them.+++
Let me ask you this then, What does success mean to you?
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