Society often idealizes a life led at hyperspeed; those who are constantly over-achieving with impossibly full plates and even fuller meeting schedules. However, the run-of-the-mill corporate finance path certainly isn’t for everyone. It takes a very specific type of mentality and mindset to survive in that type of setting.
Just like happiness and fulfillment, success is a very individual and personal thing. What is success for some may not be anything impressive to another, while another person’s failure may look like the most incredible feat ever through the eyes of someone else. Perspective is an incredibly powerful tool, and it can be helpful in defining and determining your level of personal success.
There are many different ways in which individuals can measure their own success and progress down whatever path they’ve chosen. However, it’s incredibly important to keep in mind that not everyone goes at the same pace. There are plenty of professionals who don’t find their passion until much later in life. As such, it’s vital to remember that we’re all on our own individual course through life, and no two courses are going to look exactly alike.
Everywhere you go on the Internet someone is telling you that you need to be successful in life. Or, risk wasting it! But here’s the thing, what is personal success? Or, more importantly, what is success to you? Without knowing the answer to that question, you’re never going to be successful. No matter how hard you try. Because although you may be working hard, you might not ever be working in the right direction.
James Johnson, Author, WisdomTimes
Evaluate Your Starting Point
When working to define what success is to you, it’s important to conduct a self-evaluation. This is often the first step in the success-definition process because it can help you set up expectations for your growth and learning journey. This is vital because the expectations you hold for yourself need to reflect a realistic path for you to take.
For instance, if you’re in your second or third season of golf in your late-twenties, you can’t expect to know as much about the sport, or to make as much progress on the course as a peer of yours who has been golfing since the days of middle-school. The experience and skill levels there are just too disparate for an equal, fair, or honest comparison.
Knowing where you’re starting from is integral to selecting an ending point. Be as ambitious as you want, but try to be realistic with the growth and learning process as well.
Andrew Meyer, CEO, Arbor
When looking at where you’re starting versus where you want to end up, it’s crucial that you’re honest with yourself about the level of skill and knowledge that you’re initially bringing to the table. This can simply benefit you in the way of fortifying your mental resilience.
When you’re just starting out with something, you have to be patient with yourself and give yourself grace. You’re going to have to make a lot of mistakes at the beginning in to learn anything substantial. No one becomes an expert without falling on their face multiple times.
Ubaldo Perez, CEO, Hush Anesthetics
Set a Variety of Goals
When it comes to measuring your level of personal success, a really great strategy to implement is goal setting. This looks very different from person to person, but the best way to use a goal-setting strategy is to create multiple tiers of goals that you can eventually reach. For instance, you can set daily, weekly, and monthly goals. These three basic tiers will give you a sense of working toward something, and will help you accurately track your progress on a fairly detailed basis.
Daily goals are great because if you fall short, you have something to strive for tomorrow. Conversely, if you reach it, you can feel good about your hard day’s work, and if you surpass it, you can strive for even more tomorrow. These small goals can eventually lead to year-long goals.
Amr Adawi, Co-Founder, MetaWealth
Additionally, goal setting is a good way for you to continually strive for more. This is also helpful in being realistic with yourself about your expectations. The more attention you put into short-term goals, the more organic work you’ll be putting into developing and reaching your long-term goals as well.
It’s all about incremental progress. If you’re a little bit better today than you were yesterday, that’s incredible. Try to be even a little bit better again tomorrow, and again the next day, and so on. Eventually, you’ll be the best version of yourself because you kept the competition internal.
Lilian Chen, Co-Founder and COO, Bar None Games
Measure Against Yourself, Not Others
As mentioned above, it can be extremely beneficial to keep the competition internal with yourself, instead of falling into the trap of comparing yourself to others in a similar role or field. While knowing where you are amongst your competition can be helpful, it can also be a distraction.
This is why so many of the legendary athletes, role models, and influential figures we look up to throughout history have discussed the benefits of focusing on their own personal improvement, and not the game of anyone else.
If you can tune out everything else and focus on yourself and what you bring to the table, that’s how you’ll find success and passion. You won’t be doing it for anyone else; you’ll be doing it for you, and that’s the best motivation there is.
“If you can tune out everything else and focus on yourself and what you bring to the table, that’s how you’ll find success and passion. You won’t be doing it for anyone else; you’ll be doing it for you, and that’s the best motivation there is.”
Brian Lee, Co-Founder and CEO, ARENA CLUB
When it comes to defining what personal success means to you individually, this solo-mentality is a highly-recommended approach. You shouldn’t let the opinions of others dictate what success looks like to you, or how you’re going to go about achieving the height of personal success you wish to.
There are so many people who make history after first being considered a cast-out from society, or a failure in the eyes of businesses. They keep their head down, stay in their lane, and pursue their version of success until it’s realized. We all have that same power.
Brian Munce, Managing Director, Gestalt Brand Lab
Continual Self Evaluation
In addition to conducting an initial self-evaluation to understand and acknowledge your starting point, motivated individuals who are focusing on personal success also need to conduct continual follow-up self evaluations. This way, you’ll have an idea of how much progress you’re making on a regular basis, while also giving yourself an opportunity to set additional goals.
Self-awareness is so important in so many different contexts. Measuring and defining what personal success looks like on an individualized basis is certainly one of them.
Susan K. Shaffer, President, Pneuma Nitric Oxide
Self-evaluations also make for an excellent opportunity to congratulate yourself and celebrate the little victories. No matter how small or seemingly insignificant, it’s always well worthwhile to celebrate your achievements and to remind yourself of your value.
Even if things aren’t progressing as quickly as you would hope or you don’t feel like you’re quite achieving the level of success you want for yourself, you still need to show yourself some love and celebrate the little wins. Those can be just as important as the major ones.
Lyudmyla Dobrynina, Head of Marketing North America, Optimeal
Defining Success on an Individual Level
The most important thing to keep in mind about personal success is that it needs to be identified and defined on an individual level. Having a firm grasp on what success looks like to you will help you relentlessly pursue your vision, and maybe even help you make history.
When you’re defining success for yourself, it becomes a lot easier to find the motivation you need to hit your goals and to strive for even greater heights.
Lindsay Malu Kido, CEO of Empower Pleasure
If you’re having trouble figuring out what success would look like to you, consider visiting a career-coach, or having a discussion with a guidance counselor of one sort or another, if you have the access. This can be a good way to help you brainstorm ideas and a path toward your vision of success down the line.
Having a career coach to help you figure out what direction you want to take your life can be invaluable. They’ll often ask you quesitons you hadn’t even considered and push you to think about the future. It takes time and patience to get to where you want to be, but it’s worth it.
Jae Pak, Founder, Jae Pak MD Medical
Final Thoughts on Personal Progress
There is no one-size-fits-all definition of success. Everyone has a different idea of an ideal life, and different thoughts on how they’d like to get there. Having an idea of what success looks like and feels for you personally, can put you on a path to create a very happy and fulfilling life.
Measuring personal success is not just a matter of examining how much money, fame or power you have. Personal success is marked by signs of emotional growth that manifests itself in various signs and signals. This means that there is not really a standard for how far you have come in life, but rather it is about recognizing how your own personal approach and attitude towards growth in life and work have made you successful.
Jody Wilber, Author, Career Trend
