CA089: What does success mean to you?

What does success mean to you?

We start every episode of the Changeability Podcast with the words ‘brought to you by Brilliant Living HQ .com’ because that’s our online home.  That’s where you find us, our products, the 89 podcast episodes we’ve published to date, and hundreds of blog posts. 

But this week we asked you if you’re experiencing ‘brilliant living’. If you take the dictionary definitions of the two words and put them together it brilliant living means something like ‘living life in a way that is excellent, bright and marvelous, pursuing a lifestyle that feels very good to you.’

We define ‘brilliant living’ as living life on your own terms. Ok, so its not always 100% possible, but it is definitely more possible than most people think.

Sure there are physical and social parameters, but we can push those boundaries and look at what are the real boundaries and which are those created by the cultural norms and social expectations we go along with.

What brought all this on you might ask.

Well this week we had a fabulous day in London. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and it was the first warm day of spring. We met our son Alexander for a full works English breakfast sitting outside at the Bankside Café – they even had three vegetarian options for me. We walked along the Southbank of the River Thames - past Tate Modern, past Shakespeare’s Globe and down to London Bridge, where we ambled round Borough market, saw the house from Lock Stock and ended up drinking smoothies in the Refectory Garden at Southwark Cathedral – all by lunchtime.  Returning along the river to the Royal Festival Hall we met with some Tropical Think Tankers for a Mastermind Session and had a fun productive great time talking business. Then back to my sister’s house for family dinner before driving home to pick up Dude the Dog and get back to our house and bed.

Reflecting on it in my appreciation time the next day I thought to myself – that was a brilliant day. This triggered thoughts about what makes a successful day.

Because in a way success is another way of looking at what brilliant living means to you. So how do you define success – what does success mean to you?

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.” Abraham Lincoln

The definition of success

The Oxford Dictionary describes success as

‘The accomplishment of an aim or purpose.’

‘The attainment of fame, wealth or social status.’

‘A person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains fame wealth,'

These last two definitions are interesting because this is the sort of thing that springs to mine when we think about what success means. 

Conceptions of success:

Moving up the ladder

There is the idea that success is about getting to the top of the ladder especially in terms of career and moving up the corporate hierarchy.   Any organisational chart will make it obvious where you are in the scheme of things, but at what point on that ladder of success will you think you’ve been successful?

It will partly depend on why you’re doing the job. Is success about the status or b the influence and impact you will have?  Is it connected to the benefits or trappings of success?

Expert status

Another way of looking at success is about reaching an expert status. We call people a success when they reach a level of expertise like actors, musicians and sports people.

An interesting question is at what level do you become a success in your own eyes and in the eyes of those around you.

Financial success

The most common definition of success is probably around financial or monetary success. 

There’s a wealth connotation implied