Exploring the Many Faces of Success
CindySuccess is a term with many meanings. Everyone describes it differently since everyone's values and morals differ. When you think about success, you correlate it back to goals, wealth, fame, status, aspirations, and other aspects of their lives. It’s a subjective and personal concept.
What do you think of when someone talks to you about success? Is it wealth, status, and power that you think about? Many think about those aspects because they are already ingrained in societal norms. However, in today’s world, success holds more meaning than just wealth, power, and status.
Defining Your Success
What is your authentic definition of success? You don’t need to worry about other people’s opinions. Here are some things to consider to see what success means to you.
- Reflect on your values: what is important to you? What principles do you live by?
- Goals in life: What do you see yourself accomplishing in life?
- Identify your passions: What hobbies or activities do you find fascinating?
- Finding your purpose: What impact do you want to have on the world” What problems you want to solve?
- Reassess regularly: As you grow and change, your values and goals might change, so revisiting your definition of success can help you adjust.
Remember that as a person, you continue to grow. Your definition of success may be different in your 20s than your 40s.
Views Of Success
1. Happiness and Contentment
Many people find happiness difficult to achieve. Of course, you will not be happy every day because things happen in life sometimes. Life is hard, and events can happen out of nowhere. Around 47% of people are somewhat satisfied with their lives. However, whenever you are content and appreciate your life, you know you did everything possible to achieve that.
When you achieve this, you must protect it with your life because sometimes people want you to be unhappy. Don’t let other people take away your happiness. You achieve happiness and contentment in life, so you deserve it like everyone else. However, there are people who are jealous and don’t want you to achieve that.
2. Financial Security
In the economy that we live in at the moment, everything is expensive. From rent to groceries, the prices seem to increase every time. The cost of living seems like a nightmare that everyone wants to wake up from. It’s sad since only 25% of Americans feel financially secure while the rest are not. Inflation is continuing to increase, and people aren’t making enough to fight it.
If you have enough income and assets to sustain you, you know you are in good standing. People who have money and are able to take care of themselves don’t have to worry about their lifestyle. You know you are ahead of the game than most people since you did your research to have that financial security.
3. Relationship
Every relationship is different and hard since you have to put in the work if you want something out of it. You have a relationship with your friends, family, lover, coworkers, and others. Keeping them or leaving them is up to your decision. Having a successful relationship with others is hard because everyone has their own values and morals.
Their values and morals may be different from yours, and you might not want to accept that. If someone is not treating you well, it’s time to leave. You have to let go of the relationship that are hurting you. It’s tough, but it will help you in the long run. If you are in a toxic relationship and not letting that person go, you are hurting yourself.
4. Personal Growth
Are you happy with yourself? Your personal growth can be your job, how you look and feel, your relationship, your health, and other factors. If you see yourself improving every day and you are proud of yourself, then you are successful. If you set goals for yourself and accomplish all of them, you already ahead of the game than most people.
You have a positive mindset that you want to change to become a better person of yourself. If you want to be better than yesterday, you have to do baby steps every day until it becomes a habit where you do it without thinking.
5. Work-Life Balance
Having a professional career and a life outside of work is rough. You don’t have enough time in a day to do everything you want. You spend the majority of your time at work, and when you come home, you are so exhausted that you don’t want to do anything. Depending on your field, you can work 8 hours or more.
Some jobs give you flexibility, but some don’t. It depends on what you want in life. Around 53% of people are not satisfied with their flexibility, and they feel burned out.
6. Health and Well-Being
Health is the number one thing everyone cares about. If your health is not great, it’s time to reflect and fix that. Health means wealth. If you aren’t in a good condition, you can’t do anything like making money.
If you are exercising consistently and eating correctly, you are doing your body a favor. You feel good about yourself and get a fine body that you probably dream about. Exercising isn’t the only thing you should do, but meditating or doing yoga. You have to exercise your mind too.
7. Positive Impact
Making a difference in the world and giving back to the world is a success to some people. This can be volunteering, donating money to a charity, or having a positive impact on a community. Being able to make a difference and see the smiles on people’s face is something that is priceless.
The world is not always great, but you can put in the work to build something everlasting. If you are willing to give back, people are going to remember what you done to the world. Not many people give back to the community.
Success is a Journey, Not a Destination
The journey to success is long and full of obstacle. Success is not a race because the only person who is keeping track of success is you. There is no check box or a line you cross that tells you, you have finish. Success is a continuous process of growth, learning, and experimenting.
She started her blog, The Money Dreamer, when she realized the 9-5 job was not the lifestyle she wanted anymore. After designing for a while, she wanted a more meaningful life, which was freedom, so she decided to venture out. She took action so that she can live her dream life and decided to help people to live theirs by helping them how to save, budget, and invest.
Marjolein Dilven