The term “success” is extremely subjective. Unlike achieving goals, success is more of a vision-statement and is quite relative. This means that what one person might consider success, might not qualify as the same for some other person. Which does not nullify any one person’s belief of success – it just shows how subjective and relative it is; to each his own. Success can be interpreted in many ways depending upon what your idea of success really means. Thus, in order to determine what SUCCESS can mean for you, read on:-

1. Responsibility

– Responsibility or kartavya is one such factor to be taken into consideration while finding the ability to give meaning to your individualistic definition of “success”. Responsibility here does not only mean the ability to be able to carry out your duties with utmost genuineness but also refers to being the best at what you do. Is that your definition of success? Being the best at carrying out your responsibility – it could be in your profession, as a family-man, as a citizen or/and as a human being. If so, then you can be termed as a successful person only after having met your duties with due respectfulness and after having others satisfy with them too.

2. Religion

– People whose aim in life is to be able to attain a certain level of religious/spiritual happiness consider themselves to have succeeded in life after having achieved the same. Here too your religious beliefs are subjective, i.e., it is solely your own and individualistically belonging to you. But what is important to understand here is that if you are a religious/spiritual person and if you achieve what you had aimed for in alignment to your faith, then you can call yourself successful.

3. Relief/Aid

– There are many people who are motivated in life by compassion, i.e., their belief is that they shall consider themselves successful only if they are able to positively influence or assist someone who is materialistically and emotionally less privileged than them. Thus, once such a person is able to earn enough or is able to take out sufficient time from his/her schedule in order to help another soul, they feel like they have achieved success. For such people showing kindness, politeness and love in a loveless and ruthless world is a feat of its own and thus for them success becomes a broader spectrum than an inward looking exercise.

4. Respect

– For certain people, respect is holy. Everything about them is only asking others to respect them for who they are. And they make sure they demand such respect from others through thoughts, words and actions. For them making smaller profits is okay as long as they are respected for their work ethics and rationale. Once they find this respect in the eyes of their loved ones they consider themselves to be successful. Hence, whether it is in relationships or work, they are only eyeing for acclaim, esteem, admiration, acceptance, praise and reverence, it is what keeps them going and gives them the reassurance that they are on the path to achieving success.

5. Riches

– Material amenities are extremely vital for some people. The so-called joy of being able to live their life with a certain level of certainty/surety of being able to afford the best of facilities for themselves is a high for them. Hence, their life is dedicated to acquiring riches and generating wealth for a life of financial freedom. And all of their efforts are dedicated towards the same – getting a better job, investing more, taking bigger risks to get bigger returns etc. are ways in which they feel like life is giving them the validation of being successful or at least the fact that they are on their way to achieving huge success.

In one of our premium programs, ‘transform your mind, transform your life’, we talk about what success really means and how you can achieve the same in each area of your life.
The above mentioned five R’s of determining your definition of success are all-encompassing. Thus, it could be so that your definition could comprise of one or more of the aforesaid factors, the priority of which shall depend upon what you need to derive out of your life given your time, efforts and more importantly, your vision.