As we head into the end of the year it is a good time to reflect on the past year and plan for the coming year. Was your 2018 a success? If not, will you have goals and a plan in place to try to reach those goals for 2019? Whether or not your year was success, have you ever thought about how you define success?
We all look at success differently. For one person it may be to earn the most money they can. For another it may be to do the best job they can every day they are working. For yet another it may be to positively impact the most lives they can. Your definition of success depends on you.
The great college basketball coach John Wooden looked at success more about competing with yourself than someone else. I think this is a good point. You may set goals that, if reached, will result in you doing better in some manner than someone else. How you define the goal is the difference.
For an attorney a goal may be about billing a certain number of hours or bringing a certain amount of money. This type of goal can be written in terms of what you will do, i.e. I will bill 1800 hours next year or it can be I will bill more hours than any other partner at my firm next year. Which goal will motivate someone to work harder depends on the person. When I set these types of goals I focus on what I want to do, but not how that will measure up to what others I work with will do.
So as the sun sets on 2018, take time write down goals. When you do, think about how you will measure success. There is no wrong answer. Plus, if you write down your goals, there is a much better chance you will reach them.
I will leave you with a quote from Richard Branson, who equates success with personal fulfillment:
“Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people they associate with. In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are.”
