Growing up, our parents, teachers, and friends paint a picture for us of what success looks like. It is usually exactly as advertised on TV—the mad scramble for moneyhousejobmoney. Were this brainwashed version of reality true, the world would be populated solely by accountants and bankers. It would be a bleak and dull world with no room for the misfits, artists, and creators who form our culture.
While that mundane vision of success is what most people seem to want, you need to ask yourself, “What do I want?” Just as the first step of any journey is deciding where to go and how to get there, our first step should be to define success for ourselves.
This is imperative early in your career, but even on down the road you need to pause, check your progress, and realign your priorities by asking yourself a few important and sometimes difficult questions.
Are you following a passion?
Do you have time for friends and family? Health and spiritual nourishment? Study or travel?
Is your work a service to others?
Is your work emotionally fulfilling?
Basically: What do you cry about in the shower?
Setting your own terms for success is how you form a purpose-driven life. Without these standards in place, you live the clichéd life, passive, unfulfilled, and on the losing end of compromise. You surrender the pursuit of happiness to chase a paycheck.
Along your way to happysuccessville, there are many choices. Choose love. And always choose “you.”
