Being ‘successful’ is one of the most important things people aspire to. Except if you ask what it means to be successful to ten different people you will get ten different answers. A lot of people think success is having money in the bank and a Lamborghini in the parking space out front. I have a lot of clients who talk to me and say that is what they envision success to be, without thinking about what success would mean for them. It’s too often that people forget that happiness comes from within, not from the things you have on the outside.
People often define their success by how they compare themselves to others, who has a bigger house, who has a nicer car, who has the designer clothes and the list can go on. Especially with the rise of social media in the past decade this phenomenon of excessive comparison seems to be a trend that is not going away any time soon.
The difficulty with this ‘comparison success’ is it digs away at the unique individuality each and every one of us have. We are all our own person and that means that success is going to be different for everyone. Trying to copy and paste someone else’s success into your life is not going to bring you happiness. I have spoken to some very wealthy people and one of the most common things they say is money doesn’t buy happiness. You should not attach material items to your success or happiness because those things come from within.
You need to define success on your own terms. The advice that I like to give people is if you can look at yourself in the mirror and say you’re genuinely happy and have an inner peace, that is success. It really doesn’t matter how much money you earn, what matters is that you are happy and the people that you love are happy. That can mean being a multi-millionaire or just providing a happy healthy life for you loved ones, no matter the size of your goals, just reaching them is an accomplishment in its own.
Success is different for everyone, but most importantly, it’s what makes YOU happy. Being able to wake up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror with acceptance and an inner peace is really what success should be. We need to stop comparing ourselves to others and focus on what is going to make us happy. Dedicating time to your self improvement and reaching your goals, no matter how big or small is successful! So how about we stop looking to others to define ourselves and start looking to create our own success. Write a list today of 5 things that you believe make you successful which have nothing to do with anything outside of yourself.
If you want to find out more about how I can help you live a happier and healthier life then book a FREE consultation with me today!