What Does Success Mean to YOU?

“Define success on your own terms, achieve it by your own rules, and build a life you’re proud to live.” – Anne Sweeney

For the past 6 years, I have been traveling the world and have been fueled by so many inspirational people & stories. Humans absolutely fascinate me, I  fall in love with most people I meet and tend to be very curious about peoples lives. Some may mistake it as being overfriendly, I say its pure curiosity. They say you are only as good as the people you surround yourself with. Because I am so curious about peoples lives, I get to know who I want to surround myself with pretty fast and end up encountering some of the raddest people in the world – I am lucky.

You see, people share stories in conjunction with their individual definition of what happiness & success means to them.  Everyone has their own definition of success and how they showcase it, is different. Varying points of views and perspectives is what makes the world such a beautiful entity – we are all collectively contributing to something bigger based on our own definitions and individual journeys.

“The Sucess Journal” section of my blog will feature a different individual every week. Someone whose story is inspiring, touching, thought-provoking, funny, etc.

However, before reading about other peoples definitions of success, you must look deep within yourself  – “the question we have to ask ourselves is: What does success mean to us? What does success mean to you?

Is it more money? A healthy family? A happy marriage? To help others? To be famous? To be spiritually sound? To leave the world a little bit of a better place than you found it?

Continue to ask yourself that question. Your answer may change over time, and that is fine. But do yourself this favor – whatever your answer is don’t choose anything that will jeopardize your soul. Prioritize who you are, who you want to be, don’t spend time with anything that antagonizes your character. Be brave and take the hill BUT first answer that question, what is my hill?

So first we have to define success for ourselves and then we have to put in the work to maintain it, make that daily tally, tend our guard and keep the things that are important to us in good shape. Where you are not, is as important as where you are. It is just as important where we are not, as where we are.

Look, the first step that leads to our identity in life is usually not: “I know who I am.”. That’s not the first step.  The first step is normally, “I know who I am not.” The process of elimination. Defining ourselves by what we are not, is the first step that leads us to knowing who we are.” – Mathew Mcconaughey

Not too much homework right? Start thinking about how you define success.