Success Matters

Does success matter to you?

That probably depends on what the word success means to you...

There’s this idea floating around that success doesn’t matter. At first, it's disguised with good intentions. “It’s not about what you have but who you have” or “You can get to the top to find out that you have no one to share it with”. Now, as stand-alone statements these make sense. But dropping the importance of being successful all together… seems pretty foolish.

Let's look at a couple of common areas of life real quick.

Let’s start with work. If you’re going to show up to a place and exchange your time, energy, and talent for money; doesn’t it make sense that you would maximize the return you get for giving away some of your most valuable resources? If you’re going to be in a place for 9 hours a day (56% of most peoples waking day) then tell me what sounds better:

Getting paid the minimum, medium, or maximum range of what your employer is willing to pay you?

Hopefully, this one isn’t breaking your brain. Maximum wage sounds like the best exchange for my time, talent, and energy. Organizations don’t give raises to the mediocre. The minimum goes to mediocre. The medium goes to the ones who work. But the maximum goes to those who take great action and value the success of the organization by being successful at what they do. Let’s be reminded that we’re not going to get to use that time and energy anywhere else. So maximize what you have while you have it.

What about family? So many of us spend the least amount of time in our lives with the people we love the most. If we’re not bent on being successful as a spouse or parent we can miss it. Take this average week for example:

168 total hours in a week

56 hours of sleep (if you don’t have toddlers)

40 hours at work

3 - 10 hours of transit (20 minutes - 60 minutes each way)

This gives you just under 70 hours to give your best to the ones you love the most. It sounds like a lot because it is. The problem isn’t the time given. It’s our attitude and seriousness about making the most out of the time we have with them… it’s about wanting and working to be successful in our family lives.

The list of how being successful benefits us, and those around us, is endless. We can be triggered by the word and let our thoughts of power-hungry leaders. Or we can understand that to experience life in the way we desire, we have to see success as something to work towards. Before you can work towards success you have to know what it means to you.

Take Action

1. If you could wake up and experience the perfect day, what would that look like? Think about it. What time do you get up? Who’s with you? What did you do and who did you do it with? How did you add value to others? I encourage you to write it down.

2. What can you do starting right now that would instantly start changing the direction your life is going and redirect it towards the life you desire it to live? Write down what comes to mind.

3. What are 3 major adjustments you can make that would create the most positive change in your life?

Now for the real question. Do you actually want to be successful in these areas or is “medium” the most you and those around you are going to experience?

A great resource that helped me change the way I think about the word success was from Grant Cardone’s book “The 10x Rule”. If you’re interested in equipping yourself further in this area I suggest checking it out. You can buy it here.

I hope this has added value to you! As always if you have found this helpful please subscribe and share to the Strong and Steady! You can also follow me on Instagram at @raymillsap