What is success? I talk a whole lot about setting setting goals and reaching for the sky. Why? Study after study shows that most humans feel the most satisfied when they are moving forward in life—learning, improving mentally and physically and also helping others. So how do you balance life to get the most out of it? And how much of happiness is tied to wealth? Some recent studies have shown that setting and achieving goals brought both money, success and happiness in life.
Some very wealthy people they will tell you money isn’t the key to happiness. Business mogal Richard Brandson wrote this on Linkedin:
“Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people that they associate with. In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are.”
And billionaire Mark Cuban said this in an interview from Steiner sports:
“To me, the definition of success is waking up in the morning with a smile on your face, knowing it’s going to be a great day. I was happy and felt like I was successful when I was poor, living six guys in a three-bedroom apartment, sleeping on the floor.”
So you may ask if you took all their money away would they still be as happy? I don’t think you can answer that question. You see if you took away all the money of a truly successful business person they would get it back very quickly. Why? Because having a successful blueprint in your brain and living it out will attract everything you need in life including money. You can watch people of influence when they are in a setting where no one knows them. They still are magnetic. They carry themselves in a way that is attractive to others. Its like they are running on a program that the rest of us just don’t have figured out.
But the focus shouldn’t be on money. Money is only one measure in life and money itself can’t bring happiness.
So what is my general definition of success? I would say success is you getting what you most desire out of life and making the most of time, relationships and the health you were given. I think achieving that without setting goals is almost impossible. The key to take away here is that you can’t be so driven on one thing you miss the rest. Success is a balance of life. You can have all the money in the world in be miserable. You can have lots of friends and be relatively happy but still feel like something is missing. You have to live life by what makes you come alive. But not all things that lead to the most fulfilled life are going to be fun. In order to create a life you are proud of takes thought, planning, dedication and a desire to always grow and learn.