Redefine Success on Your Own Terms

I used to have a “successful” corporate career (based on the conventional definition of success). 

And yet, it didn’t feel fulfilling or meaningful to me. As a result, I started to question what success is and what it could be.

I realised that the conventional definition of success I had aspired to and been pursuing didn't feel fulfilling or meaningful because it didn’t match my values and what mattered most to me in life, work, or business. I decided that carrying on in the direction I was heading was no longer an option. I wasn’t willing to live and work that way any longer.

I started to figure out what my own definition of success would be if it was based on my values and what mattered most to me. I used that to create a vision for the life, work, and business I wanted to create for myself that would give me the freedom to live and work on my own terms in a way that felt fulfilling and meaningful to me.

Long story short, I left my corporate career over 20 years ago. I changed my career. I started my own business. I have moved around the world and have lived in England, Ireland, and Canada, where I now live on a beautiful island off the west coast.

I live, work, and do business on my own terms. It is fulfilling and meaningful. And that is my definition of success. 

Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t perfect. But perfect was never my goal. Life, work, and business will always have ups and downs, setbacks, curveballs, obstacles, challenges, good times, wins, fails, successes, laughter, tears, and so on. But through all of that, if overall it enables me to have the freedom to live and work on my own terms in a way that feels fulfilling and meaningful, that is success for me.

Here are four steps to help you get started with redefining success:

Step 1: Identify your core values. They are the foundations on which freedom, fulfillment, and meaning in life, work, or business are built.

Step 2: Create your own definition of success based on your values and what matters most to you.

Step 3: Create a vision of what your life and work would be if you built it based on your values and your own definition of success. 

Step 4: Turn your vision and definition of success into plans to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

The bottom line:

If you haven’t created your own definition of success, you are defaulting to a definition of success you never chose. Make sure that is what you really want or if it is time for change.