Define Your Success

    

                        

With the new year, you might have written down goals or simply have them in your mind as things you want to achieve. Either way, the new year feels like a fresh start, a chance to do things differently. For some of us, including me, it feels like being a newborn baby, given another year to get our act together and truly live. Whether you feel like a newborn or not, the truth is that you want to improve.

Before we talk about success, I believe we need to define what success looks like for you. Not for Anna, not for Phillip, but for you.

Last year, Maria bought a house in Osona. She now drives a Polo and went on a trip to the coast, sipping wine with her girlfriends. When I see her status, I feel terrible because I am still renting, I still have an Android phone, and God knows the only money I have is for transport to work and back, just enough to last me until the end of January. The question is this: if you have not achieved what Maria has, does it mean you failed? Well, it depends.

Before we decide whether you have failed or not, let’s define what success looks like to you. What are the things that, if you achieve them, will make you feel like you have accomplished your life goals? Not only life goals, but also yearly goals, monthly goals and daily goals. If your definition of success is to buy a house and drive a Polo in one year, and you have not done so, then you did not succeed in that year. But if that was not your definition of success, why do you beat yourself up for not achieving those things?

Have you actually written down what being successful looks like to you?

Many of us do not really know what we want because we think that achieving what others have achieved is the only way to be successful and then look to social media to seek validation.

What are the things that, if you achieve them, will bring satisfaction to your life? For Amos, success is to buy three goats and chicken feed. For Shunai success is to heal from the passing of her mom. For Hendrik, success is to start buying groceries to help his parents at home. For Hileni, success is to finish installing a water pipe for her mother in the north so she no longer has to walk long distances to fetch water. 

You need to clearly define what success looks like for You.

It is time to buy yourself a N$50 journal from PEP and call it “My Success Journal.” In that journal, write down the things that, if you achieve them in one month, will make you feel successful, as well as goals for six months, one year, and five years. Be realistic about your abilities and where you currently are. Here is an example.

I have 12 months in the year, so by 31 December 2026, I would like to:

    • Save N$1200 in Shoprite savings stamps.
    • Learn how to bake cookies and cakes.
    • Spend more time with my family.

You then take these three goals and break them down across the 12 months. Ask yourself what activities can I do each month to help me succeed come 31 December 2026.

    • Every month, I will buy N$100 worth of Shoprite savings stamps and hide them under my bed mattress.
    • Every month, I will buy easy mix and try to bake something new.
    • Every month, I will do something fun with my family, even if it does not cost much.

You will track your progress in your Success Journal every time you do something towards your goals. You will also write down ways you can improve next month. Maybe save N$120 next month, maybe add icing to the cupcakes, or maybe try a TikTok challenge with the family where the winner does not do chores for the week 🤣.

These small successes give birth to big successes. Celebrating your small wins gives you the courage to aim higher and do better. As the year goes on, you can review your progress and see if you are able to add another goal that you can realistically achieve. You should also write down success goals for the next five years.

In five years, I would like to:
    • Year 1: Have a driver’s license.
    • Year 2: Get a better job.
    • Year 3: Buy a car that I can afford to maintain monthly.
    • Year 4: Graduate with an Honours degree or a Master’s degree.
    • Year 5: Move to the coast.

By the time you achieve these things, you will be successful because they align with your own definition of success. They are special because they are goals you chose for yourself, not goals defined by others. You decide how you want your life to turn out, and you actively move in that direction.

The takeaway is simple: write down your goals for success and read them every day when you wake up and before you go to sleep.

- Take ACTION, ACTION, ACTION daily -

Habakkuk 2:2 And the Lord answered me, and said, Write down the vision, and make it plain upon tables/journal, so that the one who reads it may run with it and achieve it.