When you think of success, what comes to mind? One might say success is bringing home lots of money. Another might say that success is feeling like you’re satisfied. A third person may disagree and say that success is feeling consistently productive and accomplished. Or that you’re lucky. Or that you’re happy without a worry in the world. What elements comprise your recipe for success, and how do you define it?
I leveraged my large community of Twitter followers to get a sense of how people define success. Even in this economy, the collective decided that if you’re happy, you’re successful.
@rickjulian (rickjulian) says:@tamar loving what you do; doing what you love, and making enough money to sustain it.
@ShirleyTipsy (Audrey Seiberling) says:@tamar When I walk in the front door each night, if I have the ability to smile & the energy to cook dinner after working all day… SUCCESS
@abourland (Anna Bourland) says:@tamar Success: Feeling satisfied with who you are and where you are without apathy or complacency while positively affecting others.
@curiosidad (curiosidad) says:@tamar I also like: "Success is a multidimensional destination of continuous improvement" also from my book. Send the link 2 ur blog.
@curiosidad (curiosidad) says:@tamar "Success is to be ready when the opportunity comes" – I mentioned this in my book "Connecting My Dots"
@Moonvine (Joan Adams) says:@tamar Success is health, happiness, joy, prosperity, harmony and inner peace
@sbspalding (Steve Spalding) says:@tamar Being able to do what makes you happy, comfortably, for the maximum amount of time.
@mrinal_desai (Mrinal Desai) says:@tamar Success = Being Happy with your journey with an eye on your destination
@petewailes (Pete Wailes) says:@tamar or to put it another way, being at the point where you’re content with your life
@petewailes (Pete Wailes) says:@tamar having what you want, and wanting what you have, and not lusting after anything else
@boredcollegekid (Jared Eberle) says:@tamar At the end of the day, being able to fully say that I’m happy and have no regrets.
@perryhewitt (Perry Hewitt) says:@tamar success is pursuing your interests and activities on your own terms rather than at the whim of others
@michellereno (michellereno) says:@tamar: "The most practical, beautiful, workable philosophy in the world won’t work – if you won’t." – Zig Ziglar
@deansguide (dean guadagni) says:@tamar "Success is knowing ur creating a career based on ur passionate interests, helping people succeed, and leaving a legacy of peace
@josh_sternberg (josh sternberg) says:@tamar success is waking up in the morning. everything else is cake.
What About You?
Lateral Action readers, what have you achieved when you feel successful? Do you find that you are reaching success on a consistent basis? Share your tips in the comments!
About the Author: Tamar Weinberg is Lateral Action’s Associate Editor. Tamar is a former contributor to Lifehacker and displays her skills as a social media maven at her blog Techipedia.
Success is achieving your goals. But true success requires planning goals that fulfil your values and your mission – something most people never think about.
Being able to do what makes you “happy”.
It seems deceptively easy, but it is incredibly hard to take the decisions and make the choices that will eventually contribute to “happiness” in life. Success is ALL about the journey inwards …the outside journey is only a tool to move inwards.
my 2 cents 🙂
Maya
http://www.geekdance.com
http://www.thinkmaya.com
Success is happiness acknowledged. That’s 33 chars by the way. So plenty of room for some rest after you find success 🙂
Strange how we write about the same topics on a such short timeframe: being successful.
Thanks for a fresh approach on this one.
sucess is just achieving what u want to achieve.
When I know I have made a difference in making the world a bit better than before, I feel happy and successful!
Truly liking yourself enough to wish others happiness (some find this so hard to do); and being courageous enough to take risks.
Balancing the desire for high standard in what I produce while helping others in print or on the phone, combined with earning a fair and reasonable income.
Great question!
Roger
PS: Get started on that book!
Success is contextual, isn’t it?
If you’re talking about your career, maybe it’s having a job you love. If you’re talking about your finances, maybe it’s having $1 million. If you’re talking about relationships, maybe it’s about loving and being loved back.
People have been searching for a meta definition for words like “success,” “love,” and “life” for centuries, and no one has come up with anything that satisfies everyone. The reason, I believe, is we don’t think in meta terms. We think in specific ones.
For me, success is surviving pneumonia 16 times and being one of the oldest people in the world with SMA Type II. Success is being partnered with Brian Clark. Success is living in a condo on the best side of town and being within walking distance of everywhere I like to go.
Then again, I think way too much about stuff like this. Of course, I’d also argue that’s what makes me successful. 🙂
Ultimately, success may mean having enough of the appropriate resources to be able to do as much of what you want, whenever you want, with whomever you want (willing participants, of course).
quiet happiness and sharing its path with the still, quiet loved …
Success is…whatever you want it to be. No matter what I say here in my comments, it won’t be right or wrong, because each person relates to it differently. To me, success is living life and not simply existing.
Thanks for the eye-opener Tamar!
Cheers,
Glen
Success is doing what I love to achieve my personal goals, while enriching myself, making new friends and enjoying along the way.
Success: losing everything and still having the will to take it all back.
Success is having a vision and a sense of purpose and manifesting that vision in reality. It’s the feeling of accomplishment and mastery that you get from being able to create your own life to include love, family, health, friendship, meaningful work, community and enough resources. And of course, gratitude to spirit for making all those things possible!
I mean no ill will to the people who supplied those definitions, and perhaps it had something to do with the way the question was framed, but… Count how many of those answers present success as a lifestyle outcome and checking off items on the self-fulfilment to-do list. Then count how many describe it in terms of making a contribution to others around them or making a difference to the way the world works. Hmmm.
for me success means not compromising integrity and also success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
Success is not to be measured by the position one may have attained in life but by the obstacles one managed to overcome.
After hard work I can still manage a smile its sucess for me. Seeing my children and my hubby doing well in the life is a success for me. Bringing a smile on the face of others is a success for me