Each of us strive to live a successful life. We want to feel successful! Some want fortune. Some want happiness or peace. Others want a sense of accomplishment and recognition. There are so many factors to look at when it comes to success. I want to share with you a definition of success, or a way to measure success in your life, that can motivate you and open your eyes to the success you already have and also make you think about success from a different angle.
What is success?
The question all of us are faced with again and again. Zig Ziglar, a popular motivational speaker, has this to say about success: “I believe that being successful means having a balance of success stories across the many areas of your life. You can’t truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.” How many wealthy people do you know that live a lonely life? How many go through divorce after divorce? There is no amount of business success, or any other type of success, that can compensate for the failure of what is truly important, which is our relationships with family.
Areas to Balance – A Self Diagnosis
Are you successful? Here is a great way to diagnose yourself and see how you measure up. This is a method that Zig Ziglar uses to help people measure their own success.
Ask yourself the following questions and answer them truthfully. Give yourself a plus for those where your answer is “yes.” And give yourself a minus for those answers that are “no.”
- Are you happy?
- Are you healthy?
- Do you have friends?
- Do you have peace of mind?
- Do you have security?
- Are you at least reasonably prosperous?
- Are you loved?
- Do you love?
- Do you have good family relationships?
- Do you have a hope that the future will be even better?
Now, add up your pluses and minuses. How did you score? This is definitely a personal diagnosis and is a tool that you can come back to time after time to see how you are doing. There will be some areas that need improvement, and some areas that you are doing very well in. Go and celebrate the successes you do have, and continue working on the areas that you know you can do better in.
Remember these words from Mr. Ziglar “Failure is only an event, it is never a person!”
