Core value · Success family
Success
Doing well by the measures you care about
What does success mean as a core value?
Success as a core value means doing well by the measures you’ve chosen, in work, family or craft, and seeing clear evidence that your life is moving where you want it to.
Doing well matters to you, and you have a clear picture of what doing well looks like. It might be a thriving business, a respected career, a family that works, or being very good at something you care about. The point is to do well by the measures you’ve chosen and to see evidence that you are. It’s broader than any single goal or contest. As a core value, success gives you a steady sense of direction and a low tolerance for drifting.
What does success look like in practice?
- You review your year against the life you want, as well as the tasks you completed.
- You change jobs when a role stops leading anywhere you want to go.
- You compare your progress with your own earlier self more than with your friends.
- You spend time defining what a good outcome looks like before starting something new.
- You feel restless when life is comfortable but not moving forward.
When is success overplayed?
Success can quietly borrow other people’s measures. The salary, title or house that was meant to be a sign of doing well becomes the point, and you keep climbing without asking whether it’s still your ladder. When you get there it can feel hollow, or the bar moves the moment you arrive. Relationships and health become things you’ll attend to after the next milestone. Healthy success keeps checking the measures themselves. Once a year, you could write yours down and cross out any that no longer feel like your own.
Often confused with
Success vs Achievement
Achievement is reaching specific goals. Success is the overall picture of doing well, which can include achievements and usually adds up to more than a list of them.
Success vs Winning
Winning is coming out ahead of others. Success is measured against what you care about, so you can succeed without anyone losing.
Success vs Wealth
Wealth is having financial resources. For some people money is how they measure success; for others it barely features.
Questions to sit with
- If you wrote down your measures of success, whose voice would you hear in them?
- What would you count as a successful life if nobody else ever knew about it?
- Which of your current goals would you drop if you stopped worrying how it looked?
More values in Success
Achievement, ambition and coming out on top.
About the author
Matt Rutherford is a Career and Leadership Coach. The Values Finder is the same exercise he uses with his coaching clients. He also writes Stuff that MattRs, a weekly newsletter with practical ideas to help you think clearer and work better.
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