5 Meaningful Ways to Measure Success in 2021
Society often measures success based on fame, money, looks, and possessions. When you’re influenced by those things, you can quickly start feeling like a failure in life.
But success is more than those things. It’s about personal growth. It’s about finding meaning. Success is more related to just living a life that matters in your eyes.
When you achieve daily and long-term success in who you are and how you live, all of that external stuff matters less.
You realize you can define true accomplishment in life on your own terms. Here some better ways you can measure success in 2021.
Related: What Does Success Mean? 9 Ways To Achieve It
1. Being better today than you were yesterday
Did you get up earlier today than you did yesterday? That’s success. Did you get more done today than you did yesterday? That’s success.
It’s the daily improvements in our lives that really reflects true accomplishment. The day to day improvements are what lead to eventual long-term achievement that brings happiness.
Think about what you didn’t do so well today that you want to try to do better tomorrow. Write it down as one of your goals for the day, and plan to do it.
2. Having more calm in challenging circumstances
Inevitably we all face tough moments and bad days. It’s how we handle ourselves in the face of that adversity that reflects how much we’ve grown.
When you develop your ability to find inner-peace in the midst of the storms in life, you’ve achieved something great that many people struggle with.
Here are some tips that might help:
- Remember all of the past moments you’ve overcame
- Imagine your better life after you’ve moved past the tough times
- Do some mindfulness meditation and try to relax
3. Staying positive in the face of negativity
There’s a whole lot of negative energy that will surround us at times. Whether its people being negative or struggling with our own negativity.
And we should of course be honest with ourselves and accept those feelings we have that aren’t so positive. It’s a part of emotional regulation.
But at the same time, it’s a true sign of personal development when you’re able to re-shift your emotions in a positive way in the face of negativity.
Here’s an article I wrote you might find helpful: How to Stay Positive in a Negative World: 30 Unique Lifestyle Choices
4. Getting along with people better
It’s not always easy to get along with people. We’ve all had moments where we reacted and snapped at things others have said.
When you get to a point where other people’s words affect you less, that’s quite an achievement there. Beyond that, it’s a great improvement in life to just be good at talking to people.
Forming good relationships with people can potentially help lead to personal and financial fulfillment.
If you don’t know where to start in improving your social skills, here are some resources that can help:
5. Being comfortable in your skin
This kind of personal victory can take a long time for some of us to achieve. People are always judging who we are and how we act.
But you have to realize no matter what you do, someone’s always going to criticize it.
And of course, sometimes we should learn from what other people say if they mean well. But other times, when someone doesn’t mean well, treat it like noise.
Just block it out. Because if a certain way that you act or live isn’t emotionally or physical harmful to you, then you should just own who you are.
From my own experience, I know it’s not as easy if you’re in your 20’s or younger.
But the sooner your can get comfortable in your own skin, and not care so much what other people think, the better.
Life is much more enjoyable when you can just feel good about yourself.
Defining what being successful means to you
Growing up, I thought being successful meant I had to get a degree, get a 9 to 5 job, have a house, get married, and have a family.
But as I got older, a lot of those things didn’t quite happen at the timeline that was expected. To be honest, by the time I was 25, only one of those things had happened.
Looked around and saw many people around me getting all of those things, and it felt like I was failing in life.
But we’re all on our own journey. Being successful for me is different from being successful for someone else.
The personal challenges I’ve overcome, and that you’ve overcome, are what should really define your level of accomplished fulfillment.
Remember that as you’re continuing your journey, and just continue to do the best you can each day.