How do you measure success?

I have been thinking about what success means to me recently and not surprisingly have concluded that it is a very difficult thing to pin down.

For many people the word immediately has connotations about how much they earn and how big their house is and what kind of car they drive. Other people would argue that for them it is about the quality of their relationships and how much they can maintain their own personal integrity on a day by day basis.

For others success might simply mean having the motivation to get out of bed in a morning to face another day looking after a disabled family member who requires constant attention and loving care.

Like many things in life it seems success is a relative concept dependant on what measuring system you are using and what your own personal circumstances are at any one time.

The thing is we are constantly tempted to measure our success against somebody else’s measuring stick and whenever we do that we often can feel like we just failed.

For instance I got really fed up with myself today when someone else was telling me their success story and instead of wanting to celebrate with them I felt envious and wondered why I did not have a similar story to tell him at the time. I found myself having a pity party and missed an opportunity to find out more about how my friend had achieved his success.
How foolish and selfish of me, I felt bad until I remembered some things that that I have learned over many years that helped me put all this in perspective.


1. God made me unique and no one else can do what I do in the way that I do it or be the way that I can be in the way that I can be it and so as a result…
2. My success will look different to other peoples success because my skills, abilities and priorities give me unique outcomes. (Assuming I am proactively using those gifts/skills)
3. Success rarely comes without first experiencing some failiure…or in other words receiving feedback that our current actions may need to change if we desire a different outcome.

So if like me you are wondering how to be successful don’t compare your gifts skills and abilities with someone else’s instead celebrate your uniqueness and if you aren’t getting the results you want change your actions and focus on maximising your strengths rather that trying to improve your weak areas.

Above all as my mother used to continually remind me….
”If at first you don’t succeed try try again.”