Success may not always look the way we think it should. However it should feel a certain way. It should feel good, like something has been accomplished or completed. There are articles aplenty on what successful people do, how they do it, what they foster, and what they do not do. How do you feel when you are being a success? More importantly have you defined what success is for yourself or your business?
- Define what success is for you.
Articles about great business successes and the leaders at the helm have their place. One thing they cannot do is define success for you. My own journey has had me unpack personal success and take away what others have defined as success and develop my own terms for it. I now have success on my terms not the terms of others. I started with defining personal success and what that felt like. For example it feels right to support causes that have diversity and compassion built into their framework. It also feels right to work with individuals and businesses that have a commitment to the people they serve.
- Define what you want to achieve.
What are motivated to achieve? What strengths are you bringing to your life and to your business? Many people talk about feeling like a fraud because they do not fell truly successful. A suggestion to overcome that is to focus on what you want to achieve. If you want to be self-employed do it. If you want to be a manager set to work for that to come about. Having achieved your goal acknowledges the achievement as a success. It may not look like you thought it would. Allow yourself to feel the satisfaction of your accomplishment and celebrate that. Celebrating the small successes is important to feeling successful.
- Align personal and business goals.
When your personal and business goals are aligned there is a sense of freedom and happiness. Ensure you do the work to have that alignment in place. It may be that you value working for a company that has a strong ethical base and the products and services made available reflect that. Or you may value a company that has a creative culture and a casual work environment. Whatever it is have the goals align and your feeling of success will certainly grow.
Feeling successful is more than the money you make, the influence you have, and the trappings of material goods. While it is important to be able to support yourself it is also important to feel your accomplishments and celebrate your own individual attributes.
Marie-Helene Sakowski, Business Consultant SME’s
