Money shouldn’t be the only factor in how you define success.
Money is not the end-all, be-all.
I want to emphasize this point because most people believe that they are not successful unless they are excessively wealthy financially.
It’s easy to get brainwashed into this state of mind by watching all the materialism that surrounds us, especially on social media.
We should never make money the determining factor on how we gauge success.
Money isn’t everything
If we take this approach to evaluating our success, we can be setting ourselves up for failure.
The reason I say this is because numbers are infinite. They go on forever.
And every time we reach a financial goal for ourselves, we can easily disregard our achievements and set another goal.
This can lead to us perpetually chasing arbitraryArbitrary means that is based on random choice and not any reason or system. More numbers.
Define your own success
Everyone’s idea of success is different because everyone is looking for different things out of life.
Some people want to be rich so they no longer have to work for others and take orders, some don’t want to have to go to an office everyday.
Some want to spend more time with their family, and some want to travel more.
The list goes on and on.
However you choose to define a successful life, the end goal should always be happiness.
What will make you happy in life?
Seems like a simple question with a simple answer on the surface but once we get past the obvious reponses and keep asking ourselves why, things get a little more complicated.
Yet it is imperativeImperative means of vital importance or very important. More that we get past the superficial answers and think deeper about what we ultimately want because – how are we going to achieve it if we can’t clearly define it?
It’s important that you know what your definition of happiness is so that you can create a plan to get there.
It’s ok to want things that bling (material items) but you have to aim for more than that.
You have to figure out what truly makes you happy beyond money.
What are you planning to use the money to buy?
How can it better your health, your family, your lifestyle?
Is it a bigger home with a backyard so you can entertain and spend more time with family and friends?
Or is it a fast car to impress people?
Or maybe it’s a fast car because you love cars and you’re an enthusiast?
Whatever it is it’s important to figure out.
Success is relative
Some people can be happy making 50k a year, some a million.
Actually, a study of over 1.7 million people in from 164 countries found 75k a year to be the sweet spot.
What is the lifestyle you WANT?
Keep in mind that sometimes having a lot of money with the wrong mind set can lead to a life of excess and adopting bad habits.
Furthermore, please don’t make the mistake of thinking that because you are happy with 75k that you will be ten times more happy with 750k.
It doesn’t work that way.
With more income comes more responsibility, stress, headaches, bills, leeches, so on and so forth.
You need figure out what success and happiness looks like to you so you don’t make the mistake of creating a complicated life for yourself.
Most times happiness is found in simplicity.
If you are only chasing numbers, remember that numbers are infinite.
Which means instead of enjoying your money and living a happy life you can be chasing numbers a long time..
