How to Define What Success Looks Like for You

Everyone has their own idea of what success looks like, but have you stopped to consider what success means to you? Many of us just assume we’re not successful until we’ve reached some benchmark society as set for us, whether it’s making millions of dollars or having a huge team of people working for us.

But success isn’t always about how much money you make or how famous your clients are. Those are great goals to have, but they’re not a part of everyone’s dream.

The problem with going along with society’s definition of success without stopping to think about what YOU want is that you can end up burned out, stressed out, and unsatisfied. To make sure that doesn’t happen, let’s go through a few steps you can take to identify what success looks like for you, so we can create a roadmap to get you there.

​Visualize Your Ideal Business

By now, you probably know about the power of visualization in helping you identify where you want to go in life, so take some time to visualize what you want your life to look like. What kind of people do you want on your team? Do you want employees, or would you prefer to outsource your work to independent contractors so you don’t have to worry about benefits and the pressure of being someone’s only source of income? Do you always want to be at the helm of your business, or do you eventually want to hand over the reins to someone else?

It’s important to have a vision for what you want your business to look like so you and your team can start working toward those goals.

Visualize Your Ideal Life

When we talk about success, so often we tend to talk about our business, but it’s important to remember that you can be successful personally and professionally - and, yes, you can have both. Never let anyone tell you otherwise.

So, once you’ve mapped out what success looks like for your business, it’s time to map out what success looks like for your personal life. Do you like working from home, or would you prefer to be in an office? How many hours do you want to work each day? Each week?

If you love working all the time, by all means, structure your business in such a way that you’re always on the clock. But for those of us who prefer more life in our work/life balance, it’s important to remember that wanting to limit our work hours does not mean we’re lazy, or that we’re not committed to our business. It just means we have a different definition of success for ourselves and that’s OK.

Compare and Contrast

Once you know what you want for your business and what you want for your personal life, it’s time to see if those two visions match up, or at least overlap. If you want to run a business that involves managing hundreds of employees, but you also want to be able to take time off unexpectedly if your kid gets sick, you might have a hard time achieving both of those goals. That’s OK. That means something’s gotta give, but you just have to find the areas where your two visions overlap and focus on how you can make that a reality.

​Helping small business owners spend more time at home without sacrificing their income is where I excel as a business coach. If achieving a work/life balance that works for you is something you’ve been struggling with, schedule a FREE clarity call now to talk about how I can help.