One of the most
powerful questions I've ever been asked (and find myself asking others) is: How
will you know when you've been successful?
Whether you're
talking about a relationship, a business project, or a vacation, this question
stimulates the kind of thinking that changes your life. And at the heart of
this question lives this principle-- measuring your life changes how you live.
The truth (that many
don't realize) is that we're all measuring our lives already. When we think
about our lives--our social events, relationships, career, etc--we all make
judgments about determine whether something was successful or not, whether we
are pleased with how it's going. But most of us don't know what will satisfy us
until after it's over and our choices are already made.
Why not do that
thinking in advance and write down the success goal? Don't wait until after
you've made all your choices to figure out exactly what you were hoping would
happen. Don't just post-measure, pre-measure.
Your chances of
achieving success are much, much greater if you know exactly what you're aiming
for. If you don't what success looks like, you don’t really know whether your
actions are getting you closer to success or not.
2 practical tips as
you practice identifying your various measures for your life:
1.Don't be afraid to
be creative in how you measure. Smiles or sighs can be as helpful as
dollars or inches--in some cases much more so. And keep trying new ways of measuring. Creating insightful success measures is as much art as science and can
take a lifetime to master. Just get started now.
2.If your goal
involves more people than you (i.e. a vacation), share your measure with the
others and get their measures. You may be able to accomplish more than one
goal, but you may need to adjust your measures to create the best experience
for everyone. Never assume that your measure is obvious to the others.
So...what does a
successful day look like to you? How will you know if today has been
successful? How will you measure that?
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