Does success mean ... money in the bank, celebrity status, nice house, flash car, trophy partner?

What does the dictionary say?

• Achievement of a desired aim:
• Attainment of fame, wealth or power:
  
•  Something that turns out well.

No two people have the same view of what success is, which is why the definitions above don't seem to help all that much. They only refer to the outcome but not the experience the achiever feels when they are attained.

So now you have it all ... the big fat bank account, the well known celebrity status, you live in a house worth megabucks, with a garage full of flash cars and everyone is envious of your trophy partner.

BUT

Your time is not your own, everyone intrudes into your space, everyone wants something from you, you're overweight mal nourished, you are verging on being an alcoholic along with being a caffeine addict ... I could go on but you get my drift?

So what is success?

As is often the case going back to the roots of our language can be helpful. The latin origins for success is successus which means "happy outcome".

So it's not the outcome that matters it's the feeling of happiness that we experience having achieved that outcome. It can't be measured or defined using external measurable terms and like any emotional feeling the only way to know is to feel it yourself.

Personal success is just that achievement of whatever produces a happy outcome for you.

Some questions to finish with ...

• What does business success mean to you?
• What does relationship success mean to you - either personal or business?
• What is health success to you?

Sometimes adjustments to achieving these and other success are minimal, other times you need to create a totally new image of success. But in doing so you'll avoid the trap of trying to be the success you think other people think you should have, and attain your own personal success.

Spending some time working out what success means to you is a worth while activity it helps you focus on what you really want.