Success – What Does That Actually Mean?

Success is a word that has much more to it than most people realize! If you ask people of any age group about their goals in life, you will usually hear the sentence: “I would like to have a successful and fulfilling life! But what exactly is success? In order for you to be able to live a successful life, you must first be able to define the word ‘success’. Grigori Kalinski, who is a coach and entrepreneur himself – and who has had great success in these areas – knows what this definition looks like.

What definition of success does society deceive us into believing?

When we talk about success we often hear that only people who have enjoyed a good education, graduated from school and university with top grades and always go full throttle in their profession can be successful. The career is the most important thing of all, because only with a good salary you can buy a house and a fancy car – and only then you can say that you are a successful person.

This is exactly the definition of success that society suggests to us. As early as kindergarten, we are trained to blindly follow other people’s instructions, to suppress our curiosity, to conform to the social system and to function on a daily basis. In elementary school as well as in secondary school, the leash is shortened even more and the independent thinking of most people is completely destroyed. Everyone has to say what society wants to hear from him – otherwise he will suffer the consequences.

But how do the people feel who have achieved all that society demands of them? Those who have a well-paid job and a house and a car? Whose life looks exactly like that of most employees? As a rule, these people feel a deep inner emptiness. They feel burnt out and unhappy. They have the feeling that they only exist and function, that their whole life is passing them by.

Is a successful life always a fulfilling life?

Whether a successful life is always a fulfilled life depends on how we define success. Society’s definition of success leads in very few cases to real fulfillment and satisfaction, because a very important factor is forgotten here: The emotional needs. Although we humans strive for recognition, which we can also achieve in most jobs, we also want to live self-determined lives, create our own goals and pursue them. That’s pretty much impossible in our salaried society. We want to feel connected to our work, needed, and we find fulfillment in the assumption that we are an important part of society – but in employment, every employee is often replaceable.

So what does it really mean to be successful?

Real success, which provides happiness and satisfaction, must extend across several areas of life. Financial security is one part of it, but we also need the opportunity to successfully realize our visions, to be able to develop personally, to successfully connect with other people and to feel connected to them. Money alone does not make you happy and just because you have money does not make you successful!

Basically, it can be said that there is no one definition of success, because each person sets different priorities. Success is always what is particularly important to you. If you acquire a new skill that you did not have before, this is a success. If you really want to move up in your job and finally get the opportunity to do so, this is also a success. If, on the other hand, money is merely a means to an end for you and interpersonal relationships are much more important to you, you will not consider your life a success if you climb the career ladder steeply but do not have a single really close human contact.

This is how you too can become successful!

How do you go about becoming successful when the word success can’t be clearly defined at all? Well, it’s not that difficult. First of all, it’s important how you define success. What is really important to you in life? At what point are you at right now? What is going well in your life and where do you still need to take action? As a first step, find out what your life should look like so that you can say: “I lead a happy and successful life!”. Leben!“.

The next step is to consider how you can make the change. Which levers need to be moved and which buttons need to be pushed in order to get closer to your success? If there are currently several building blocks in your life, focus first on the one that is most important to you so as not to overwhelm yourself. Work hard, don’t let setbacks get you down, and don’t stop fighting until you reach your goal. In this way, you can gradually change all the challenging areas in your life and eventually achieve success.

Realize that the present is always a mirror of our past actions. It will take time for your efforts to pay off and for change to become visible on the outside. Every beginning is difficult and you will sometimes have the feeling that you are not moving forward or even going backwards. Don’t bury your head in the sand, but grit your teeth and fight your way out of your comfort zone – because real life takes place outside our shell!

Conclusion

In the end, only you can decide when you are successful and when you are not. What is a successful life for one person is a pure disaster for another. Become a successful person by finding your own definition of a successful life and thinking carefully about the areas of your life in which you need to make changes in order to achieve this state. Dare to step out of your comfort zone and work on your mindset to better cope with setbacks and build excellent self-discipline – because these two factors are essential on your path to success! Eliminate harmful beliefs and establish beneficial beliefs. Forget everything you learned about success in your childhood and get back into the habit of thinking for yourself.