What does success look like to you?

This thought struck me recently. I was asked to vote for some awards and one of the categories was success of the year. But it got me thinking..success is subjective, success to me is so different to you reading this post or to ay judge of an awards show. So I thought I would ask my fellow bloggers in the Blogging Your Way to Riches Facebook community what success meant to them.

My View of Success

I have two views of success, one that my angel would say and one that my devil would say. The devil would say success is earning a ton of money and have authority in a field. The angel would say success is being happy and content. But I know I am somewhere in the middle. Success to me does mean financial security, as lets face it money gives you choice, and being in debt is huge weight on your shoulders. The happiness and content feeling. Hmmm, I don’t think you can be happy in every part of your life (parts of life to me being family, friends, work, health, love). There is always an element (for me) that struggles, ying and yang. To have the highs you have to have the lows.

Over to my fellow bloggers for their view

Lee | Art About Men and Money

I think of success as achieving a state of spiritual contentment. It sounds airy-fairy but the problem with goal-oriented success is that whenever I reach one goal, I’m always thinking about the next thing I haven’t achieved, and it bogs me down. I don’t spend enough time thinking about what I’ve already achieved. So when I pan out and focus on how my whole life fits together and how I can make my family life, personal spirituality and work life all happy, I definitely feel like I’m achieving something.

So many “successful” people are desperately unhappy and struggling to hold it together… it makes me think that if I can give myself and my family that feeling of contentment in this world, then I’ve succeeded.

Nikki | The Female Money Doctor

I agree with Lee- I think being contented is so important! But I also think that not having to worry about money and being free to do whatever I want to do and also to be able to help my family and others more would make me feel successful for sure!

Jane | Lady Janey

Success is feeling happy with what you have achieved no matter how big or small that goal may have been. Sometimes lots of tiny steps forward cover more ground in the long term than one larger one.

Victoria | Lylia Rose

I think success is measured differently by everyone, but for me it is being content and not wanting more, making my own income and not working a job I detest, being as healthy as I can be and enjoying life. I think some people measure success as making lots of money, but I agree it’s actually about being satisfied with what you already have achieved.

Emma The Money Whisperer

It’s a very personal concept. For me, success is a healthy balance where financial stability, mental and physical health, personal contentment/fulfillment and happiness are aligned.

Defining what makes you successful can move as your life changes too – I achieved corporate success within a professional environment but when I became a mother, my view of success across all aspects of my life changed as I had to balance competing priorities.

David Thinking Thrifty

It looks like a lot of failure and mistakes on the lead up. It’s tears, self doubt, a feeling of being completely overwhelmed, but when you get there you look back and think ‘I can actually do anything if I put my mind to it. I DID THIS!’

Michelle | Time and Pence

I found this question so difficult because success is very fluid and covers every aspect of your life but to sum it up, for me, success is about living the life you absolutely choose and not the life you think you should be living.

Cat | Penny Wise Life Rich

I think success is so personal and differs for everyone. I also think success changes as we grow and develop. When I was younger I thought success meant having lots of money, a nice car, nice clothes etc. As I have got older, this couldn’t be further from my view of success at all!

For me now, success means that I am confident in the choices I am making and that I am happy, it is more internal than external. Success is now more about certain achievements along the way: saving for my house deposit, managing on less of an income, being a positive role model to my pupils, creating sewing and knitting projects with my own hands, mastering the next move in my aerial hooping, having someone actually want to read my blog. It’s more about the little things for me now and I feel more successful as a person than ever. One tip I do have about success is to find what success means for you and don’t compare to anyone else.

I would love to know what you think of success? What is success and how do you define it? Thank you to everyone for your contribution to this post.