Know Your Values to Succeed

by @bethvogt

Success is serious business to a lot of people – to just about everyone.

People spend a lot of time defining success. Redefining it. Pursuing it. Achieving it.

Set your sights on any sort of goal – academic, athletic, creative – and the question pops up in some form or another: Are you successful? How have you succeeded?

You’re either evaluating your success … or other people are asking you about it.

Here’s the thing: Defining success is like shooting at a moving target. (And yes, some of us are better at that than others.)

Google “define success” and 880 million results show up in less than one second. Impressive, Google. Impressive.

There’s a nice dictionary definition of success: the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. Short and sweet. Can’t argue with that.

And then come the blog posts and articles providing other perspectives on defining success. Consider these titles:

• How 9 Incredibly Successful People Define Success (Maya Angelou, Winston Churchill, John Wooden – they carry any weight with you?)
• 3 Better Ways to Define Success in Your Career (Better than what?)
• 20 Definitions of Success You Should Never Ignore (Uh-oh! Have I ignored them?)
• The only Definition of Success that Matters (Confident writer, yes?)

I’ll admit I’ve read articles like these in the past. Listened to others talk about their definition of success. I’ve even blogged about success – and failure – in the past. You can’t have success without failure – that’s for sure.

Here’s what I’ve discovered along the way:

1. Success is not who we are. Failure is not who we are, either.

I’ve set my sights on certain goals in my life. I’ve achieved some of them. Failed at others. Here’s the truth: I’m not a success … and I’m not a failure. I’ve celebrated winning awards and grieved over closed doors and unexpected no’s – but where I live and breathe and have my being – is outside of all those events. (Acts 17:28 NIV)

Do I always remember this? No. Sometimes I hang my self-worth on the number of stars attached to my book reviews or whether I final (or win) a writing contest. I have to remember again and again and again who I am is not defined by my wins or losses.

2. If we remember our values, we can define success for ourselves.

 Writers are told to determine our characters’ values because this determines the kind of choices our characters make, and how they interact with other (imaginary) people. It’s important for each one of us to know what we value too. Only then will we be satisfied when we succeed.

Did you know that you can Google also provides lists of values? I research them when I’m creating heroes and heroines for my novels. Personal values can include:

• Compassion
• Teamwork
• Resilience
• Wealth
• Peace
• Making a difference
• Adventure
• Loyalty
• Family
• Diversity

It’s fun to peruse someone’s 20 definitions of success or what someone else has decided is the only definition of success that matters. I mean, why not? But ultimately, we have to define success for ourselves – all the while remembering that neither success or failure defines our self-worth.

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