What does success mean to you?

Does it mean running your own business?

Or maybe it's working for yourself?

Maybe success is being able to work from anywhere, without being tied to an office or an employer.

Maybe success is owning a Tesla or a big house. Or maybe it's the flexibility to care for aging parents or young children.
 

Success, you see, means different things to different people.

This is why it's important to define what success means to you prior to setting goals and making plans.

I'm going to give you two steps that will help you define what success means to you.

First. You need to understand that success is tied to emotions. Happiness, love, freedom, contentment. These are the most common emotions successful people experience.

So your first step in defining what success means to you is to take time to write down a list of things that you believe will make you feel successful. And this can even be material things.

Once you have your list go through it and think about how each item in your list makes you feel. When doing this, you should feel a sense of happiness or excitement.

If any items on your list don't evoke positive feelings, mark them off your list.

The result of this first step is a list of items that you can work towards that will make you feel successful.

And the second action step you should take is to begin thinking through your list and making goals to reach them. Let's say your list includes the freedom to work for yourself. 

In this example, you can start by thinking about the type of problems you can solve for others. This could help define the type of work you'd like to go into. 

After that you can research steps to starting a business and even begin reaching out to your network to tie down your first client. 

Or maybe you have a career you love and already feel content and happy with your work but would like to create better habits that improve your health. 

You can use the same two-step process to determine what a successful health plan would look like, how it would feel to you—remember success is about emotions—and the steps you can take to begin working towards achieving your success. 

Our successes begins with one step. 

Then the next. 

But before venturing out on your path, take time to discover what success means to you. 

By taking these two steps, we gain a better understanding what will make us feel successful and how our emotions relate. 

I know these two steps will be helpful for you! I know they have been for me.