How do I measure success?

How do you measure success? 

Often when this question is asked, the person asking it has an idea or strategy for measuring success. 

I'm going to hit this topic a little differently. 

I don't know you or your life well enough to tell you how to measure success. And to be honest, it wouldn’t be very helpful for me to tell you how you're going to measure success and what that looks like in your life. 

Instead, I really want to ask that question. “How do YOU measure success?” 

This is an incredibly important question for each of us to answer for ourselves, because when we don't have an answer, a couple of things tend to happen.

First, we rarely if ever feel successful. 

It’s hard, maybe impossible, to feel successful when you don’t know what success even means for you. I’ll be honest. This is a question I personally wrestle with.

Second, we start measuring success by someone else’s standards.

When we don’t know what we’re aiming for, it’s easy to adopt someone else’s target. It becomes much easier for another person, a culture, or a system to define success for us.

So let me ask you this:

Are you in a season of life where you feel unsuccessful?

Do you often feel like no matter how much you do, you still haven’t arrived?

Are you discontent?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, I'd encourage you to spend some time this week answering this question, “How do you measure success?” Write it down. Be specific. You might be surprised how this clarity changes your perspective.