Success: It's What You Make It

[CoachMatt]

For some strange reason a lot of people, and I include myself in this group, believe that to be successful you have to have a lot of money. It seems being rich is the ultimate indicator of success.

It took me a while be now I know that it is not true.

Success is achieving whatever it is you what to achieve.

Money does not equal success.

The head of major companies earn a lot of money. They get flown around the world and live a life of luxury.

However, they are on call 24 hour a day, and they have a great deal of responsibility. They also spend a lot of time at work, rarely see the family and go grey very quickly.

To me that sounds awful. The desire for money has taken away their quality of life.

Lets look at a different person, an athlete. Take some one that is training for the 2012 Olympics. They will be flown to the games, given accommodation and allowed to compete with the best of the best.

There is little money involved. However, they must train every day, sacrifice their life style and again be away from their friends and family quite often.

Again to me that sounds awful. The desire to win has taken away their quality of life.

To me neither of these people are what I would class as successful.
However, they are successful, for one reason, they have achieved what it is that they wanted to achieve.

Just because I don’t like their lifestyle does not mean that they are not successful.

To me success comes from being able to cover the expenses, have a great balance of work, holidays and time with friends and family.

If I never crack the millions it won’t matter as I believe that right now I am a successful person.

To be successful right now, you need to look at what you have achieved over your life. Be proud of the small achievements as well as the large.

Keep your dreams in sight, but realise if you never get there, you can be proud of the fact that you tried and didn’t just sit there saying, “one day I will.”

Judge yourself on what you achieve, not on what others achieve. Lower you levels of success, and be proud of yourself.