How do you define success?

Today’s WordPress #bloganuary prompt is “how do you define success?” This got me scratching my head, how deep do I go with this.

Without literally defining the word by looking it up in the dictionary, it got me thinking, what do I think success is? Which then got me thinking, everyone’s definition of success will be different.

For some, success will be getting their dream job, that career end goal. For others it is getting the car they always wanted, or to save enough money to buy something they really want. Success for some may not have any monetary value or be anything to do with a job. Success can be learning something new, or a realisation that something toxic needs to stop and making the plans to overcome it.

Success can be getting admission into uni, passing a driving test, graduating, ticking off that item on your to do list, completing that really difficult level on your game which you’ve been tackling over and over again. It could be taking a risk and for that risk to work out, or managing to get through the day when times are difficult.

Success has lots of different versions and looks different to everyone. For me I always hoped that I would be successful in my career, whatever that means. How do I measure that success? Is it through salary? Job title? Job satisfaction? Does my idea of success 10 years ago still ring true today?

If I rewind back to early 2017 as a new mum, success would be me managing to get through the day keeping my baby happy, fed and rested and my anxieties as a new mum under control. Managing to take my baby into a public place and not worry about the looks and stress when I have trouble calming my crying child. There were plenty of days where one of those things would go to pot, but I navigated the journey and I now have a happy boy about to turn 6 years old.

Some success comes more easily than others, and some success takes a long time with multiple set backs.

People generally want to be happy and people want to be successful in some way or another. But like happiness, success is a journey. Like happiness we have ups and downs, sometimes we may have a success and a win, other times we may try and fail, but we learn from both.

I wonder if I will ever consider myself successful? It is like the shining light that once you get there you are set. But you don’t have to be “successful” to experience success. No matter how big or small these successes are they are worth celebrating. I’ve managed to publish a series of blogs in the last 11 days which I haven’t done for many months, that is a success.

So my takeaway is try not to get bogged down in trying to define the ultimate overshadowing success that you may spend most of your life trying to achieve, think about the smaller wins and successes you can achieve on the way. Success is personal, so don’t let someone else’s goals derail yours. You do not need to compare yourself to others, besides their successes may be something you wouldn’t want anyway.

What do you think?

Camilla -Erika