Success is a very subjective term. In fact, if you were to line up ten different people you would probably get ten different definitions. There is no one definition that success could hold to because it is what you make it to be. 

So what is success? 

If you haven’t defined what success is for you how would you ever know if you’ve attained it? The answer? You wouldn’t know if you were successful, and you just might miss the fact that you are. The most successful people have clearly defined what success is for them. They are not ignorant of what it is they are trying to accomplish. It is a clear target that is meaningful to them. They know what they are doing in order to get to where they want to go. After all, we don’t want to get to a destination only to find out it isn’t what we wanted. Author Francis Chan said, “Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.”   

The word success comes from the Latin word, “Succedere” meaning to go up, follow after, or come near. You have to know where you’re going if you want to be successful. That may seem simple, but most people haven’t clearly identified where they’re going. You have to first determine what targets you are aiming for so that you can go after them. Success must be defined by you and you alone. No one can hand you what success is, it is an internal definition that you have to formulate within yourself. It has to be your working definition.

And remember this, you will need to define success for the different domains of your life. Financial success is totally different than relational success. Relational success is very different from positional success. It’s important to have a definition of success for each category you desire to elevate. For every major category of your life, you need to be incredibly intentional about what you want to accomplish. Life is too short to not take it seriously. Moses’ prayer, found in the Psalms, reflects his awareness of this significant reality:

Psalm 90:12 (NIV)

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Take some time to sit down and craft your definitions of success for each area of your life. Don’t rush through it, but be methodical about it. The first step to being highly successful is to know what it is you are trying to do. Ask God for His wisdom and He will lead you to the things you should be striving for.