There are probably infinite ways to measure or define success.
Success can be measured by some external things like how much money is someone earning, what is the job title they have, what kind of car they are driving or what kind of house they have (or a boat or whatever).
Or it can be measured internally. How much happiness are you feeling? How much joy? Someone might measure success in terms of how much freedom or peacefulness they have in their life.
One thing is certain, though: we all want to succeed, in one way or another.
External or Internal Measures of Success?
The thing is that if you measure success only by the external factors like the amount of money or the house or the car or things like that, those are things that can be taken away from you. You can lose those things. And if that happens, what happens to that sense of success that you felt?
If you measure success by the internal factors like joy, happiness, freedom, and so on, they are more difficult to be taken away from you because they are not something that someone else has a grip on.
The other thing about the external things is that if you measure success by the externals, there’s oftentimes something that you want more of. You can always want more money. You can always want a nicer or bigger car or bigger house and so on.
And it’s okay to want more, I’m not saying that. The thing is, however, that when we only measure our success by the externals, we very often think that once we have that really nice big house, then we will feel successful and happy.
Unfortunately, when you get there, the sense of success or happiness usually fades away. And then you think, okay, what else do I want, what do I need more?
Then it might happen that it becomes like a never-ending journey for achieving success in which you can never basically reach the ultimate success.
And I’m not saying there’s anything really wrong per se with that. I mean, big achievements in human history have been achieved like that.
However, what do you consider of being enough? When do you have enough success?
Success as an End Goal or an Activity?
On the other hand, if you feel that you successfully do things, little things maybe, and they lead to something that you want to achieve, your bigger vision perhaps, then you could feel success even daily.
Not that something that when you get there, you’ll be successful. But if you have successful moments throughout the day, would that be something different? How would that feel?
Words of Wisdom
In my book, Words of Wisdom, chapter 10 is about success. And again, this chapter also contains several wise words, several quotes from wise people, and here is one of my favorite quotes that I have used for years in different occasions. This one is from Deepak Chopra:
Who Defines Your Success?
What Deepak Chopra is really saying here is that it’s the realization of worthy goals that counts. Worthy goals, defined by who?
If you are trying to achieve worthy goals set by someone else, do you feel fulfilled and happy? Happy, you might. Fulfilled, maybe not that much.
Also note the last part of the quote: success is a journey.
So like I said, if you have successful moments throughout the day, here and there, while you are on your way towards your worthy goal, then you might say that you are successful every day, as you are doing those successful things. You successfully do things that take you towards your worthy goal.
Like I said in the beginning of this blog post, there are probably infinite ways of defining and measuring success. What do you really consider as success for you? I think it’s also worthwhile to stop for a little while and consider that.
And especially make sure that you define your own success. I do not recommend letting somebody else define your success.
