Success is defined as “an accomplishment of an aim or purpose.” That sounds pretty clear cut, but also quite narrow to me. If that was all that was considered a success in life, I would have a lot more failures to check off on my list of goals than I do now.
To me, success is doing the best that I can in the moment. Whether I technically succeed or fail in the task is not my measure. If I do succeed in the task, great! If I don’t, I first ask, did I do my best to prepare and carry out the task? If I can answer yes to this, even if I technically failed at it, I consider myself to have succeeded. Carry that one step further, if I can learn from that “failure,” I’ve made the most of the learning moment this opportunity has provided and have paved my way for future successes!
Life can throw some real whoppers our way. Whether an incredibly challenging class, a lot of challenges at once, or an overwhelming dilemma, life isn’t always a bowl of cherries. Having a strict, black and white definition of success really doesn’t do us any good. In fact, it can do us some harm. If we are constantly using the classical definition as our yardstick to measure success, it can really chip away at our self-esteem. Who needs that?
Now I’m not someone that is all for giving everyone a medal. I think that’s a whole different discussion based on measuring success extrinsically. What I’m talking about is measuring success intrinsically. In other words, with each task completed, I look inward and asking myself if I’ve done my best. If the answer is yes, even though the actual end result is a #fail, then to me I’ve succeeded. All the world can ask of us and us of ourselves is whether we have done our best. If we can step back, objectively analyze the situation and say we’ve done our best in the moment, we’ve succeeded in my book.
Let me make one more clarification, I’m also not talking about our “perfect” performance, but rather our best in the moment. For example, there are times when we may have known all the answers to a test. In the moment however, we may not get them all correct. Perhaps our nerves got the best of us, the question was a bit skewed, etc… Whatever the case, as long as how we performed in the moment is the best we could have done given our full effort toward preparation, then I feel we’ve succeeded.
Where my growth and learnings come is here:
“I have not failed: I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” (Thomas A. Edison).
I’d rather attempt to do something great and fail then to attempt to do nothing and succeed.” (Robert H. Schuller).
In order to succeed you must fail, so that you know what not to do the next time (Anthony J. D’Angelo).
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts (Winston Churchill).
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up (Thomas A. Edison).
And… finally, one area where you will always succeed is in checking out these great deals!
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19 January 2021
Wow this is great I was just talking about what being successful really means and you said it perfectly. I also love that you hold yourself accountable if you feel like you slacked rather than trying your best in the moment. Awesome read!
Thank you so much for your kind words Jasmine – I’m thrilled that you enjoyed the article!
I love everything about this! Especially the quotes at the end! If we reframe how we see success, everything changes!
Exactly Emily!! I’m glad you enjoyed the article – thank you for your kind words!
I loved reading this Lisa, I think it’s great how you strike the balance of not everything being perfect in life, but trying still trying take a positive outlook on things!
Thank you for your kind words Eleanor! I’m glad you enjoyed the article!
Interesting to think of success in terms of different definitions. I guess the beauty of it is that it means something different to each person. I like your thoughts about best attempts though x
Sophie
Thank you for your readership, kind words and insights Sophie!
One of my friends is a life coach and she always says, “Perfection is a myth, we should aim for progress.” I love your point about the “best in the moment”, that’s such a healthy attitude to adopt. Fab post, and thank you for finding such great quotes at the end too! Lisa
Thank you so much for your kind words Lisa – I’m glad you enjoyed the article!
I think success is defined different for everyone else and have to agree with you, even the definition can seem a bit narrow. I view success in the same way you do, being the best you can be in that moment where even if you don’t accomplish the task you aimed to in it’s entirely you are still successful because even if you didn’t reach the goal 100% you did succeed at working towards it, even if you reached at a 50% out of 100 that’s still an accomplishment!
I 100% degree, if we only think of success as accomplishing an aim then even if we try at something and don’t do well, we then think we’ve failed and don’t want to try again. For example, if I have a goal for a race and don’t accomplish the goal but still race and cross the finish line that’s still a success because at the end of the day I did still race which is an accomplishment on its own.
I really like these quotes: In order to succeed you must fail, so that you know what not to do the next time (Anthony J. D’Angelo) and Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up (Thomas A. Edison) – especially the Edison one, sometimes we quit at something and don’t realize how close we are to achieving our goals.
Thank you so much for your insightful comments Sahara! I completely agree with everything you shared. I’m glad you enjoyed the quotes as well!
Success for me is one of the things where it’s so hard to define! I don’t think I ever feel it. Maybe because I’m such a perfectionist. You have described the idea of success so eloquently, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post.
Laura / laustword.com
I’m glad you enjoyed the article Laura! 🙂
I love that third quote. You really do learn through error but it also gets you one step closer with every bit of effort you put into your goal!
Exactly Patricia – I couldn’t agree more!
I love this, especially in how you differentiate between classical success and otherwise. Classical success is usually an outside measure, whereas success is always better measured l think, by our own definitions. Great read, thanks for sharing!
Thank you Finlay – I’m glad you enjoyed the article! I too think success is better measured by our own personal definitions!