How To Achieve Success At Every Stage Of Your Life

Success Defined

As a Life Coach, I've learned that success means different things to different people. Success also means different things to the same person at different stages of life. Success has many definitions, but the one that appeals to me is that "success is achieving what is important to you." A generally accepted definition is that "success is the progressive realization of worthwhile goals."

What is worthwhile? This introduces a myriad of complications. For instance, in a community some persons may consider drug trafficking as being unworthy, while another section in the community may consider a drug lord as a hero of the poor, as he displays Robin Hood attributes. An interesting point is that success is determined by what the individual proscribes as his/her goals. This may not be the same perspective as someone else looking on. For example, Mother Theresa may consider her vocation as being a success. Yet, someone looking on may conclude that her life was wasted, as she could have used her skills and talents to produce much more money for distribution to the poor and needy than from the program she pursued.

Moving Target

Success is a moving target from two main standpoints. First, when you succeed at one goal you do not end your journey. You set another target for accomplishment. Second, you set different targets for success at different stages of your life. For example, as a baby, your success target is to stand and eventually walk. At elementary school, you are working towards success at the examination for entry to secondary school. After University success, you want to achieve career success. Later on, your success perspective is for a loving stable family life. Post-retirement, your success perspective is quite different than prior to the event.

Fear Of Success

One of the greatest blocks to success is fear: fear of failing and even fear of success itself. Some people boggle at the thought of whether they will be able to handle the glare of success or not.

Requirements For Success

Regardless of what you want to be successful in, these are basic requirements to achieve success. You must:

• Be clear on what you want.
• Believe that it is achievable.
• Have confidence in yourself that you can do it.
• Be emotionally committed to its achievement.
• Have significant reasons for wanting it.
• Be willing to pay the price, or alternatively savor the benefits.
• Take consistent, appropriate and relevant action.

Enjoying Success

An important aspect of success is that you must enjoy it. In the process of your success journey, you must enjoy the ride. Otherwise, you are not following your true passion.

Purpose For Success

To discern the purpose of success, you can review the purpose of life. To understand the purpose of life, examine a baby's evolution. A baby is usually born into this world with a clean slate of consciousness. The baby then learns, grows, and experiences joy or fulfillment. That is the story of evolution. With success you learn, grow and become fulfilled or happy. If you are not experiencing learning, growth and joy on your success journey, you need to reexamine your moorings.   

Counterproductive Elements Of Success

Life can be conveniently categorized into five main elements. 

• finance and career
• family and work relationships
• health and exercise
• religion or spirituality
• personal development and recreation.

To have a truly successful life, you need to have balance in these 5 areas. At different times, priority has to be given to different areas, but there has to be overall balance. For example, you may be concentrating on generating finances to satisfy your family needs, thus spending much time away from home. You may secure the material prosperity you need but at the expense of your spouse and the dysfunction of the children. There has to be integrated balance between these 5 principal categories of life.

Next Focus Of Success

Review what's going on in your life and determine whether you need to adjust your spears of success. One way to do this is by using a self-assessment tool. Use a score of 1 to 10 where 1 is poor, 10 is excellent, and 5 is average. Rate yourself in each of these areas. The value must be what you think, and not what others think of you. That is a different exercise.

Consider what is happening in your lowest evaluation area and in your highest evaluation. Consider, mark, and inwardly digest the implications to determine whether you need to make any changes in your lifestyle—even subtle or marginal changes. Take a clue from the study of economics where what happens at the margin is very important.