Arther Ashe said “Success is a Journey, not a Destination”.  I would change that to be “Success is a Journey and a Destination”.  Here’s why.

Everyone wants to be successful in their life but few ever clearly define what success means to them and how it can contribute to their happiness.  For the past year, I have been researching what it means to be successful and how I would define success, here’s what I have learned.

You cannot define success as some far away goal in your life.  Success must be something you achieve everyday in the small goals you set for yourself as you move towards your dreams.

You will not reach success and happiness after that promotion or reaching a certain amount of money in your bank account.  Find some success today!

Success is your Passionate Journey towards your Life Goals.

This article will focus on helping you create successful, long and short-term goals, focus on making you a happier and fulfilled person.

Most importantly, we will focus on being successful along your journey.

After writing this article, I happened to come across a Ted talk about this idea and I found it very interesting.  Feel free to watch it and get a better understanding on how consent tiny goals can add up to huge improvements in your life.

What is Not Success

You cannot define success by being famous one day, by traveling the world, or by looking a certain way.  Your success can never be validated by anyone other then yourself.

Some people think success is the freedom from worry and stress.

Occasional stress makes life interesting and often exciting.  Stress and obstacles in life give you challenges to overcome.  It builds character and allows you to grow.  You cannot be successful without character and personal growth.

Success is Not about having more Money!

Everyone needs money to meet some of life’s basic needs but money can never buy you happiness.  Money can help you avoid discomfort by having the means to buy stuff to make you more comfortable in life.

Once you reach a certain income (most experts say this is between 50-75K per year in the US), you will not get any happier.  With this amount of money, your family needs are being meet and with plenty of money left over for fun.

Having your core needs met is a requirement for success, but our core needs are far simpler then most people think they should be.

If you think buying more stuff will make you happy, then find something new to do with your time.  You will never be happy having stuff.

You cannot be Successful if you Depend on other People’s Approval!

If you want to be popular, wealthy, famous, and impress other people, then you need to find another goal in life.

Being popular and rich cannot make you truly happy.  Society falsely tells you it will and is probably the single most popular dream most people have today.

True happiness can only be found inside you and not in the eyes of others.  If you are not proud of yourself, then the respect of others will never fill that void.

People chase success by coping the lives of people around them.  They spend a lot of time looking outward trying to find examples of success that they can apply to their own lives.  This Never Works!

Always be yourself.  Feel free to have role models in your life but always be true to yourself and your values.

Success cannot just be some future, far away goal.

Lets be honest.  If you are unhappy now and plan to be happy in 20 years when you reach your long term goals, the truth is you will not be happy or successful then either.  Plus, a lot can happen in 20 years.

If you hate your job but suffer through it for the promise of retirement someday, then you will not live a successful life.  You may eventually reach retirement and reach your goals but in reality, one can argue that your life was wasted.  You missed a lifetime of happiness and growth.

The other side is also true.  If you focus just on being successful and happy today and disregard your future goals, then you will never fulfill your life’s goals.  You are just flowing with the river never making progress on your life dreams.

Success cannot be found just in your goals for today or tomorrow.

Success is passionate progression towards your life goals.

If money, fame, and status are not traits of success, then what is?

Finding your Life Goals and Passion

Finding your passion and life goals is not easy.  Some people (including myself) have reflected on this for years.  Good news is, you are not alone and some very smart people are available to help us.

First, lets understand the question.  We are looking for our passionate life goals.

Passion is defined as enthusiasm and excitement for something.  Our life goals just define our desired results of our life.

When we combine them, we get;

“A skill we are passionate about doing today that we can grow and develop to make ourselves happier today and well into the future.”

Tony Robbins is a Life Coach and has spent a lifetime studying how to improve people’s lives.  He has several great books and seminars about getting your life goals in focus and how to make substantial progress towards them.  I have bought, read, and watched them all.

Tony has a lot of great advice on how to find your passion.  Once you pick your passionate Life Goals, the critical first step is to take action.

Don’t worry about if it’s the right goal, you can change your goals or make adjustments along the way.  As a matter of fact, it’s required to adjust your goals along the way.

So many people stall looking for that perfect passion to define as their life goals and never get started.

There is nothing stopping you from having multiple life goals and pursuing them all.  Tony Robbins has a worksheet to help find your life purpose which is called “Finding Your Gift: Three Paths to Maximizing Impact in Your Career“.

The key is to make a decision and start on your journey.

Remember we are not looking for the perfect answer.  We all are filled with lots of things we are passionate about, we just need to choose something and get started.

To help you find your passion today, ask yourself these simple questions.

• What do you find yourself doing in your free time?
• Do you have any hobbies?  Why did you choose those hobbies to spend your time on?
• What subjects do you like to read and learn about?
• What gets you excited to get up in the mornings and keeps you up at night?
• Is there some topic you love talking about with friends and family?

Once you have those questions answered, its time to pick 3 hobbies you love:

• One hobby to make you money
• A hobby to keep you healthy
• One hobby to be creative

The place where all 3 meet should be your passionate life goals.  Some people use 4 areas of your to focus in on your life goals.  These are:

• Something that you Love doing
• Something that you are talented at doing
• It is something that other people need in their life
• Something that can make you money

Spend a little time reflecting on what your life goals should be.  Use the examples and method above.  Do you agree with the results?  If you do, its time to apply it and begin your journey towards success.

What it Means to be Successful

Now that we have our life goals (or Life Purpose) figured out, lets work on what it means to be successful.

Webster defines success as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.  People will be happier if they are successful, therefor happiness and success come from the pursuit and accomplishment of your purpose.

Now that we know what direction we want our lives to move towards, we need to build our ship and make sure it can withstand the journey.

Before you can embark on your life’s journey, you need to have your core needs satisfied.

Tony Robbins talks about the 6 core Human needs that everyone must fulfill.  Before we create your journey towards success, these needs must be met.

1. Certainty: assurance you can avoid pain and gain pleasure
2. Uncertainty/Variety: the need for the unknown, change, new stimuli
3. Significance: feeling unique, important, special or needed
4. Connection/Love: a strong feeling of closeness or union with someone or something
5. Growth: an expansion of capacity, capability or understanding
6. Contribution: a sense of service and focus on helping, giving to and supporting others

Meeting these core needs in the world today is not easy.  If you live in large house with lots of bills to pay, then having certainty in life is very hard.  You have no assurances you will be able to pay those bills every month.

I have an answer to help you meet your basic needs in life.  Develop a minimalist approach to life.  A minimalist believes that less is more.  Less stuff, less bills, less stress.  You will be amazed how much better you will feel when you approach a minimalist or simple lifestyle.  I will cover more about this topic in a separate article.

Once your core needs are meet, it’s now time to work on your passions in life because success is living everyday in pursuit of your passion and goals.

How to find Happiness and Success?

If you want to be a successful business owner, then work everyday at a business that makes you happy.

Does that business need to be the next Amazon?  Probably not.  Does it need to meet your expectations of a successful business.  Yes!

If your expectations are to be the next Amazon, then it will fall short of your definition of success and your journey towards success will be filled with disappointment and failure.

Instead, define your business success as just making a living, providing for your customers, and loving what you do in your business everyday.  By doing this, you business will be a success even if it doesn’t become a worldwide name.

If you defined success as becoming a great artist, then working everyday on your art is your key to success.

Does that passion need to bring you money, hopefully, but not required.  If your core needs are meet through another means, you are free to pursue your passion and life goals anyway you want.

If your core needs are not meet through your passionate pursuit of your life dreams, then adjust your life goals until it meets the the 3 hobby rule above.

It is the combination of living everyday working and building on your dreams that makes a successful life.

Conclusion

Now that we understand that success is a journey as well as a destination, what are you doing about the success of your life goals.  Are you ready to take action today?

I think too many of us are stuck in satisfying our 6 core human needs that we never get past certainty.  Our lives are cluttered with stuff holding us back from our life’s purpose.

Its time for a reboot and it’s never to late to start.

What is your life’s passion or life goals?  Were you able to pursue them and be successful in your life?  Feel free to give share your experience with everyone here.

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