What does success look like?
What does success look like and how do you measure it?
Recently two of my clients realised that by focussing on the end result as a sole measure of success they had MISSED many important achievements along the way! How many times has this happened to you?
These clients were from very different sectors. One is a senior leader in the corporate sector, and the other from a small business & sporting environment. Both were stuck on their perceived ‘failure’ as they had not yet achieved the desired end result. Interestingly it took others to point out how significant their achievements actually were, and to remind them of the substantial progress they had made so far, and the achievements this included.
These examples are clear reminders that success comes in many forms and the journey or pathway is just as important as the final outcome. A key part of our personal growth is to acknowledge our successes and integrate the learnings from each experience. Each time we can integrate and consolidate these learnings our comfort zone expands, increasing our span of confidence, making more and more things ‘easy’.
How many times have you missed opportunities to acknowledge, appreciate and recognise success because you were stuck with a narrow view of what success looked like?
Practices to create a healthier perspective of success
By implementing these practices you can create a more balanced perspective of success:
Take a balcony view. On a regular basis reflect on your key measures of success. How do your measures stack up? For today, tomorrow and the long term? Have you reality checked these with others? How would you measure others in the same circumstances?
Pause every so often to notice and celebrate successes along the way. Check in with yourself and your team, take note of what you have achieved in recent months. Acknowledge and recognise the progress and hard work.
If ‘failure is success in progress‘ then look to create an environment where it is safe to fail. Shift the focus from the final outcome to seeing each step (be it success or failure) as important parts of the successful outcome.
It all comes back to a simple question. Is the final outcome you are striving for more important than the the journey to get there? Or is the success you imagined actually in the journey along the way.