Define Your Own Measures of Success
Season 6 Episode 83
Have you ever wondered how successful you really are? Listen to this episode to learn an easy and effective tool you can use to define your own measures of success.
Show notes:
Episode Summary:
What does it look like to be successful? How do others see success? How do you view success?
In education, you know and use data to help you measure achievement. In this episode we explore a different kind of data as we look at what it means to be successful. How do YOU measure success in your life and work?
Join us today as we share an easy and effective tool to help you discover your measures of success. You might just be more successful than you think!
Introduction:
This week’s episode is a great follow up to last week’s discussion of validation. We talked about the importance of validation, both from others and from ourselves.
Validation is one of the things people use to measure their success.
In episode 42 of this podcast we discussed 7 different measures of success, including building connections, being flexible, holding high standards, and others. We’ll link to that episode in the show notes.
Today we are going to look at the definition of success from a different perspective. It is not what others may recognize as success, but in how you have designed your life to be a success in the measures that align with your values. We’re going to share an activity that can bring clarity to you about what success really is.
You get to define your success.
The premise of our discussion today is that you, not others, get to define your success. It’s not connected to other people’s definitions of success or the superficial ways that we see success defined in social media or the general population.
You may have thought of success as making a lot of money, or being attractive, or being well educated or having many friends. The world will also tell you that you are successful if you wear the right clothes or drive the right car or even drink the right coffee or carry the cool handbag!
Looking at these definitions of success often causes a loss in confidence. Teachers often tell us that they don’t feel confident. We are always surprised by that. We discussed confidence in episode 4 How to Grwo in Confidence. We’ll link to that below.
We’re not here to tell you that you need to be an influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers or make a million dollars to be successful.
Let’s talk about a strategy that can help you define success for yourself.
Define your measures of success with the Wheel of Life tool.
The wheel of life is a coaching activity. We’ve both had coaches and we’ve both coached others. We’ve found this activity very useful.
Here’s how it works:
You might want to pause this for a minute while you follow the following prompts. If you are driving or walking the dog, don’t worry, you can go to the show notes on our website and complete the activity later.
This is a good activity to do with another person, a friend or a partner.
- Draw a large circle on a sheet of paper. Divide the circle four times so that you have eight pie shaped pieces- like a pizza.
- Label each piece with one of the following areas: Money/Finance, Health/Wellness, Friends and Family, Significant Other/Love, Personal Growth, Fun and Leisure, Physical Environment /Home, and Career/Work.
- Now look at each piece of the pie and give it a rating of your personal satisfaction with this category. Right now, today, how personally satisfied to you feel with this area? 1 is low and 10 is high. For example, if you have good, supportive relationships with friends and family, you might label it a ten, where as if you have no friends or family, or if all of your relationships are extremely challenging, you might rate it a 1. Complete this with each category.
- Once you’re finished, examine your answers and reflect. Where did you score on the high side? These are areas where you find success in your life. Where did you rate yourself very low? These are areas for growth and goal setting. Be honest, this is your own work and no one else has to see it. It is a measure of one moment in time.
Get the big picture of your measures of success.
Completing this activity gives you a balcony view of your life. You can easily see the good things in your life and feel fulfillment and success. Those things will bring you joy. Those are success measures.
You can also see areas that might be future growth opportunities. Ask yourself, what would it take for this number to be a ten? That question will get at your values and what would give you a personally feeling of success.
This activity shouldn’t make you feel bad- it is just one snapshot in time. It is a key to what is important to you and how you spend your time. Feel free to add categories that are important to you. For example, you might a spirituality category, or a community category.
Michele: I add an impact category, since how I impact others is import to me. Two of my three words, which we will talk about in next week’s podcast are inspired and gracious.
Paula: That is a sneak peak for next week’s episode. I don’t think we’ve ever done that before! Come back next week as we describe how three words can change your interactions and help your live your best and most inspired life.
With your wheel of life, you will no doubt feel very successful in some areas and less successful in other areas. That is normal and typical. If you score low in an area but decide it isn’t important to you- you can let it go. If it is causing you angst, that is a sign that you would find fulfillment if you grew in this area.
Michele: The first time I did this exercise, I scored myself a 3 in health. Then it was a four, and then a five. Now I score it a solid 8. That step-by-step improvement, even though it took a long time, is a measure of success.
Paula: I have the 4 that I scored the lowest in, in my daily journal. After doing the activity I was able to really latch on to the idea of writing down each of them in my journal each day as a reminder to do something in each of the areas. At the end of the day, when I remember, I go back into my journal and give myself a + , – , or straight line to rate how I did. This is a way of reflecting on what is important to me.
Michele: Paula, I didn’t know you did that. I do the same thing, but I used my habit tracker. I used to grade myself with an A,C, C or D, but that was teacher overkill! Now I just use a plus if I mostly get it right or a minus if I don’t.
Paula: Maybe you can adopt my squiggly line!
Conclusion:
Clearly this exercise has held meaning in our lives. It wasn’t a “one and done” activity. It was truly life changing and life giving. This has helped us to define the areas in which we define our successes. The key is not to focus on what others may recognize as success, but instead it is how you have designed your life to be a success in the measures that align with your values. We hope this activity brought clarity to you about what success really means for you. And that is the only measure of success that matters at the end of the day.
Recap:
Aligning your values with your success is a good way to make sure that your measures of success actually measure things that mean true success to you. The wheel of life is a simple activity that you can use over and over again to help you see the big picture of your life and make small but important shifts that will allow you to see your success.
Related Episodes/Blog Posts:
Episode 4 How to Grow in Confidence
Episode 42 Are You Successful?
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Co-hosts Paula Schmidt and Michele Vosberg are award winning educators with the experience and skills to help teachers thrive in life and work. They’ve taught at all levels, worked with thousands of teachers, and conducted workshops around the world. They are also the authors of the #1 best-selling book The Inspired Teachers Journal: A Weekly Guide to Becoming Your Best Self.
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