Definition of Success

This is a bit of a random post – I am just noting this for myself as I wanted to write down my definition of success.  After thinking about it for some time, I realized mine is a bit different from the definitions I’ve come across, but I couldn’t distill it into a single word or brief bullet point/phrase, so here’s what I feel captures it best for me:

Success is:

• living with integrity to your personal Core Values and staying true to your Life Principles
• being a good person so that your family and friends (the people you care most about), and the world around you are better because you were part of their world – it’s living a life of genuine, meaningful relationships, continually growing, and contributing positively to others
• success is also about growing and seeing that you are the best version of yourself by giving your full effort to get yourself there, ultimately realizing the best version of yourself over time (and still continuing to grow and improve letting that “best version” expand over time), and pursuing what you genuinely enjoy and worthy goals with humility and resilience, meeting setbacks with perseverance and courage, and remaining grounded in what truly matters
• it is making the people who believed in you look wise and glad they did
• and, it is when the people you want to love you actually do love you

I think you can measure personal success by how many good relationships you have and, in the simplest terms, whether you have a happy Thanksgiving dinner when your family is around you and it’s a genuinely happy time spent together.

Also, I think you can measure professional success in many ways including whether you’ve helped enough people grow and be successful in their professional endeavors.