How Do You Define Career Success?
Why is this question important?
One of the most important career and life-planning activities you can engage in is finding your own definitions or models of success. This is vitally important for a number of reasons: If you haven't done this, how do you know what's best for you? How can you make career decisions if you aren't crystal clear about how you define success? How can you be happy if you don't know when you're successful?
If this question is relevant to you right now...
There is never a bad time to discover and be clear on your definition of success. Today's economic realities make the timing even better. If your career hasn't gone according to plan, or even if it has, reexamine what it is you actually want. Doing so can make you a lot happier.
Successful -- on Whose Terms?
If you haven't taken the time to define it, success has already been defined for you. You're already following models of career and life success. The question is whether they are your own, or ones you inherited. One of your greatest career challenges is identifying goals and definitions of success that are true to you rather than ones you inherited from family, s
Drew Seeley on withjosh.com (part 1)
ociety and other outside forces. Your current model of success may or may not work for you. The important thing is understanding your assumptions and questioning them.
If you follow a path to success that isn't your own, you may achieve your goals, but when you arrive at your destination, you may not feel successful or fulfilled at all.
Keep in mind that your existing job may hold the key to your happiness. For example, if you were to discover that making your customers happy was the one thing that defines and inspires you, what would that do to your focus and state of mind?
Choose Your Own Definition of Success
You have the power to reaffirm existing models or adopt new models of success. All it takes is some honest thinking, clarity of purpose and the discipline to stay true to your values in the long run.
Accept There Are Always Alternatives. The very fact that so many of us have not questioned the paths we are on speaks to a lack of awareness or acceptance of alternate paths. There have never been more options or valid ways of defining career and life success.
Examine Your Path. Do you love what you do? Do you do fantastic work as a result? Does your work complement your personal and family life or detract from it? Are you excited about your vision of the future? Is this your best use of your precious gifts and time?
Create Some Quiet, Introspective Time. Ask yourself these questions:
What makes me happy? How do I feel? What do I want? And then, answer a question from the coaching school CoachVille.com, "I know how successful I am by how (fill in the blank)." The answers to this question will point you in the right direction. You can have several definitions of success as long as they don't contradict each other.
Refine Your Responses. Ask yourself "why?" and "is that what I really want?" after each response to the statement until each rings true. For example, if your first response was, "I'll know I am successful when I am a millionaire," ask yourself why you want to be a millionaire. You might, for example, find out that success for you is to have the freedom to use your time as you wish, or the ability to travel or be rid of financial worries. This process may lead you to make other decisions in your life that will help you reach your goal.
Test Your Responses with People Who Know You Really Well. Do they ring true?
One definition of success that puts this philosophy into simple words comes from American author Christopher Morley, who wrote:
"There is only one success -- to be able to spend your life in your own way."
Being clear about how you define success will reap immeasurable rewards.
You Are Made For Success!
REPOST: Mesmerizing (and sober) performance of a medley of two modern classics from the 'Back To Back' album in 2008 as part of the 'Grammy Awards' Show, where she swept the board and won six (I think?) awards, despite being prevented from attending the actual ceremony, because of a ban imposed on her entry to the US. Instead she appeared at a club in London and performed, live via Satellite, a set sufficiently captivating to both deflect any possible embarrassment and eclipse the event. A couple of days afterwards, I read a poignant article her brother (a journalist for 'The Times' Newspaper) had written, praising her return to form and expressing his delight that their parents, who were also present, were able to revel in their pride at her achievements. Whilst acknowledging apprehension about possible future traumas that might arise from her mercurial personality and hedonistic lifestyle; for this occasion at least her family were content to dispel such worries and enjoy, however fleetingly, a recognition of her success and share with many others an appreciation of her talent. RIPCOPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use. Window World Kettering Limited, Unit <b>...</b>
Successful people are found everywhere. People who are successful in their career, in relationships, in their studies, people who are successful in their lives. We look at them and want to be one of them. We all want achievements. So, what is the mantra of success? If you are one of the people who's struggling to discover the mystical truth about this 7-lettered word, join the club!
Everybody has their own meaning of success which is defined by what they want to get from life. We just need to discover our own meaning of success and work for it. Once we have a clear idea of what we want to achieve from life, half the battle is won. The meaning of success won't come to you easily. You have to question your inner self extensively to understand the meaning of success.
Besides realizing the meaning of success, you need to have oodles of confidence. You should always possess a high and positive psychology and self image. If you believe in yourself, you'll make others feel the same for you. You are not responsible for what others think of you. But you are responsible for what you give them to think about yourself. If you think you are sure of yourself, everyone else will think so. If you are always doubtful, people will conceive you as a confused and unconfident person. A confident person doesn't need to introduce himself as "Hi! I am a confident person. Nice to meet you." Confidence oozes from his personality and the moment he enters a room, everyone gets a positive vibe from him.
You can train your brain to achieve success. The day you understand the meaning of success, you can start thinking in positive terms of achievement of your goals. If you think you can, you will. It is rightly said, Nothing in this world is impossible. Even the word 'IMPOSSIBLE' says 'I M POSSIBLE'. Taking correct decisions is also a must. If you are hard working, sincere, intelligent and confident but you always end up taking the wrong decisions, it would be very difficult for you to come face to face with success. There are people who do everything they can but don't achieve success and they blame it on their luck. Its not their luck. Its their decision making which doesn't allow them to become successful.
I'll give you an example. Consider an entrepreneur who's hard working, resourceful, confident and knows all the tricks of trade but always ends up investing in the wrong business. He suffers loss every time he tries to do something new. The easiest way out for him is to blame his luck and quit. But the better option will be to ponder on the decisions he has taken in the past and try and locate the loopholes. Maybe he is overlooking a few crucial facts which guide him to failure every time. The art of good decision making comes with experience.
I read a small story somewhere which beautifully described this. A very successful man was asked: "What is the secret of your success?'. He replied," Just Two words: Right Decisions". The man was asked again: "How do you make right decisions?" He said, "Just one word: Experience". Now the Interviewer got really interested and asked further: "How do you get experience?" The man smiled and said, "Again two words, my friend: Wrong Decisions." This is the reality of life. You do something wrong and learn from it. And when you try that again, you make sure that you don't repeat your mistake. People who learn from their mistakes go a long way in life. They are the people who find the true meaning of success. They are the people who truly live their life.
Everybody can be successful. You just have to understand the meaning of success and make yourself think on the lines of "I can do it and I will do it". Once you have the faith in yourself no one else come in the way of you and your success.
If you work hard and fail, people might laugh at you. This can make you think in the negative direction. It can also shake your confidence and lower your self esteem. So, the best way out is to ignore the people who comment on you. People make fun of a person only when they are jealous. Always remember, the object of people's jealousy are not the people who are at the bottom of the ladder but the ones who shine with all their might on the top. So if you see people making fun of you, understand that your destination is not too far.
Stephen Campbell
