I was listening to a podcast this week where the guest responded to a question on his definition of success. Much of what mattered to him doesn’t to me so I thought it would be interesting to take a crack at my own definition. It’s a fun exercise.
My definition of success looks like…
- Maintaining high-quality relationships with your spouse, family, and friends;
- Having agency and a very high degree of control (within reason) over your schedule and how time is spent;
- Spending time pursuing physical and intellectual challenges that are rewarding to accomplish and in which the pursuit itself is gratifying regardless of the outcome;
- Feeling your professional time and efforts matter, can make a meaningful impact, and relate to a field you’re passionate about;
- Spending professional time working with people you enjoy working with;
- Continuously learning;
- Having sufficient wealth so a) money takes up a minimal amount of mental energy and plays a small role in most decisions, and b) affords you the ability to dine out as often as you’d like, and to order what you’d like without too much consideration for price; and
- Living an authentic life where you feel you show up both socially and professionally as your true self.
I didn’t spend too much time on this so I’m not certain it’s exhaustive, but these all came to mind quickly.
It will be fun to look back at this in a few years and see if anything changes.