How To Define "Success" on Your Own Terms
Posted on March 08, 2021 by Kim Bielak, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
When making a major life transition like a career change, it's important to define what's actually important to you.
One of the first things I do with almost every one of my clients considering a career change is have them take a step back and consider their definition of “success.”
It turns out, the one we create, is not actually the one that we live by.
Instead, many of us often find ourselves running on autopilot, driven by ideas of success we’ve adopted from those around us, our upbringings, and even the media. For example, perhaps you’ve always just assumed it was the top of your career path. Recognition. Family. Money. Early retirement.
But what if your definition of success was simply to be happy? Would you be doing as good of a job at it as you are in your day job right now? Would you need to keep chasing something 10 years out?
What if it was to leave the world just slightly better than you found it?
To share quote I often keep close to me, simply to remind me how empty our popular concept of success can be: “The planet does not need more successful people. It desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind.” (David Orr)
Really, we feel a drive to “be successful” because the idea of “success” is a form of validation. It makes us feel like we did life right – or at least more right-er than the next person – yet at the end of the day it is actually empty of any real meaning. It is success for success’s sake.
Over time we’ve told that the success is going to a certain school, having a certain title, selling a certain startup, or getting a PhD, an Apple Watch, or a ring on your finger. But it doesn’t have to be. Redefine what success means to you. We don’t need more traditionally “successful” people. We need more people who care what it means.
