I consider myself a success.
This begs the question: How do I define “success”?
In its simplest terms, success is the achieving of one’s goals. So what, then, are my goals?
Personally, my goals are to build a happy life with my family; to raise a happy, healthy, inquisitive, creative child. To have a happy, healthy relationship with my husband. To be a good sister, aunt, daughter, and sister- and daughter-in-law.
Professionally, my goals are to create a business that helps support my family – that can contribute to the costs of running our family. We don’t require new cars or fancy vacations, or new clothes and new gadgets every week. I simply want us to be able to pay our bills and have a little left over to do the things we enjoy – camping, kayaking, traveling around the Northeast. Being able to finish building our house would be nice, too.
I also want to my business to have a part in helping people understand the importance of local, healthy foods in their diet, and to do what I can to support our own local food producers.
To be honest, the personal goals are easier – and in some ways, harder. Easier because accomplishing them is, for the most part, under my control; as the primary care provider, I’m (for the most part) the one responsible for making sure my child is happy and healthy, and that I’m being a good partner in my marriage. Harder because personal development is always more difficult than developing a business. The reason for this is that it requires work on my part that can be emotionally challenging, and it’s often without any tangible reward, no matter how great the input.
But now that we all know what my goals are, how do I know when I’ve reached them? Well, I know when I’m achieving my personal goals – I see it in my happy, inquisitive, adventurous, well-behaved (most of the time) child, and in my (hopefully) satisfied husband. I see it in relatives who enjoy spending time with me, and who ask me for help and offer their own when I need it.
Professionally, I see it in the feedback of customers and fellow businesspeople who recognize value in the product I offer, and in mutually beneficial partnerships with other businesses and local producers. I see it in the excited interactions with groups like the local food compact I spoke with last night; we’re not quite sure what kind of relationship we’ll be building, but we’re both excited about the possibilities. These things are, in some ways, even more valuable than monetary reward. I could have a career in which I make a lot more money than I’m making now, but without this kind of validation of my work, I’d be a lot unhappier than I am now – a lot wealthier, but a lot more miserable.
So that’s my definition(s) of success, and a brief rundown of the goals I’m working toward to achieve that success. What’s your definition of success? Have you gotten there yet, or are you still a “work in progress”? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
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