Define Your Own Success

This featured article is written by our special guest writer, Joe T.

Joe is an aspiring writer and philosopher. Most of his articles are on variety of topics related to personal experiences, societal issues, trends and values of life. He writes to share his personal observations and reflections,philosophies of life, and humour. "All my writings stems from observations and reflections of other individuals and their actions, and that other individual, is you."

​For more articles written by Joe T, subscribe to his page at https://www.facebook.com/joetan

There are many definitions of success,
Be it academically, professionally or socially.

But what is important is that as much as we attempt to take reference to it en route to finding our own,
We must never take the definitions as the gospel truth.
For we must see the above as guidelines,
And in our own capacity, make the effort to define our own success.

That said,
Allow me to put forward five points one should consider,
When attempting to define success in his/her respective life journey.


1) Believe In Yourself.
The first step in defining your own success, is knowing that you are good enough for it. Many a times we become our own enemy in our journey towards success even before we begin. We can moderate our expectations of success by taking it a step at a time, but we should never lower our value and undermine our potential to achieve greater things in that process. Have the hope, keep the faith, for you are destined for greater things this lifetime, in your own rights that is.


2) Everyone’s Worth Is Different.
The second step in defining your own success, is understanding that everyone is different, so are their worth. Everyone is born different, and therefore it’s only fair to say that we bring forward different value proposition to the world as well. We can hear stories of others succeeding and thriving in a particular circumstance, but we must not mistake their worth for ours. Sure, we must strive to succeed, but there is no need to impose their worth as ours, whilst conveniently jettisoning our own. We are all brought into this world to make a difference, so acknowledge that, determine your own worth for the world, and use that to define your success and find happiness in your life.


3) Find And Serve Your Purpose.
The third step in defining your own success, is to find your true purpose in life, and serve it. Success can come in various forms, be it wealth, fame, power or recognition. But the big question you need to ask yourself before all that is: what are you going to do with your success when it comes to you? That answer, will be the reason, and purpose that drives you to succeed. So never allow yourself to blindly pursue success without understanding your purpose of doing so. And also, never deviate from your purpose while chasing for success in life. Remember, you achieving success is but a means to an end. Exercising your purpose thereafter is but the key and the true end state that you want to be at.


4) There Are No Best Laid Plans.
The fourth step in defining your own success, is to understand that there is never a best laid plan for it. Many of us fall into the trap of thinking that if we spend more time to plan for success, the more robust it will become. But the truth is, the longer we take to plan our success strategy, the more inertia we build. We get overwhelmed by the constant flow of references and experiences from others, that we inevitably end up taking their definitions of success as ours, just because it has been somewhat tested and proven by them.

​But, remember points 2 and 3: we are all different in our worth, and we all serve different purpose this lifetime. So quit trying to perfect your plan because, yours is one of a kind. Take just enough references and listen to just enough observations for you to define your own success, and then run with it.  You can always reflect and review it along the way. For it’s way better than not having your own defined success to begin with.


5) Be Humble In Your Journey To Your Own Defined Success.
The final step in defining your own success, is to always remember to be humble in your journey towards it. Most times, the best lessons in life are learnt in our journey towards success. So be humble, stay open to feedback, comments and criticisms. For your journey can only get smoother when you allow others to help you, be it through their actions or words. So never think you are too good for advice or help. Always accord yourself some time to listen, acknowledge and reflect on others’ thoughts and advice of you. For the truth is, success tends to come faster to those who are humble and possess a certain level of self-awareness on his/her strengths and weaknesses.

​"Define Your Own Success" article is copyright of Joe Tan.