The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management: #19 Never take your Success for Granted
The definitions of success
Success means different things to different people, some believing that success is the achievement of a life-long goal, while others think it’s a perpetual state of moving forward. Success is not only the attainment of one specific goal, but it can be a series of them.
I fall into the later group. I’m always focused on something, feeling that success is just round the corner or on the horizon. If I’m not working towards something in my personal or work lives, then I feel like I’m in a state of anomie, while others may think I’m on a well-deserved respite rather than seeing I’m  off track. Once I realize I’m off course, I quickly change direction by identifying my next thing that will help me feel like I’m moving forward in my life again.
What if you don’t know what your next big thing is?
Must we be in constant motion to be successful? If you aren’t hunting down your next success, then have you taken success for granted? Maybe or maybe not.
I’m not saying you should feel bad about yourself for not looking for your next successful act like a start up or your next move up the career ladder. I’m urging you to view success as something that we always strive for to keep us on our toes, keep us motivated, and keep us passionate.
You may ask, “Motivated and passionate about what?” It could be your career, your business, or your personal life or anything that provides meaning and value to you being here on earth. For example, when I keep a low profile, I’m still working on things that matter to me, such as time spent with my mother or other family members. After years of working hard and being away from my family, spending time with mother is now my definition of success.
Success is a function of your career and life stages
How we view success is also a function of our career and life stages. Earlier in our career, success is moving up the ladder from marketing specialist to marketing manager, from senior marketing manager to group manager or director.
In your personal life, you may decide that getting married and having kids are higher priorities than being a director or vice president. If so, great, then choose to focus more on family than work. Success is not just the next job you’re shooting for, it’s also about being happy as you work on your life goals.
Action Items
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Career stage assessment: What career stage am I at? How does this affect how successful I feel? What would make me feel more successful? How can I work towards my definition of success?
- Life stage assessment: What life stage am I at? Is this in conflict with my career stage goals? How can I resolve this conflict? What’s more important? What does the next three to five years look like if my life stage goals have a higher priority than my career goals? What trade-offs do I have to make between career and life goals since I can’t do both?
- Personal assessment: What am I doing at the personal level to feel successful? Am I learning new skills or knowledge on my own time? Am I engaging with others that help me learn new ideas? Do I have hobbies or interests that I’m passionate about?
These questions are self-evident, but should help you establish your career and life priorities that drive how successful you feel. Hopefully after answering them, you’ll be able to determine how you can set up a series of successful steps, goals, achievements that keep you on the road to perpetual success.
Never take your success for granted. Keep moving working and spending time on the things that matter to you. Success is really a state of mind, as we try to make our life meaningful.
P.S. The Great Recession has taught all of us, again, that we always need to be prepared for the worst case scenarios. Build up or rebuild your savings, so you feel financially secure. Also, be prepared for the two steps forward and one step back routine. Success often comes with minor setbacks. The trick is to feel like we’re moving forward, even if we have to step back a little. The net gain is what really counts!
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The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management series outlines my rules of personal and work success. After reflecting on my personal values, I made this list, realizing values are my rules of being or life management principles. Based on your experiences, I hope this list inspires you to identify your own rules. Here are the rules to my success that may help you over the course of your journey:
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management: Overview of the Pyramid and Its Levels
Smart Lemming Pyramid
Level 1: Rules for Our Fundamental Nature
- #1 Find your own spirituality and practice it.
- #2 Know what you want or the Universe (or God) won’t know what to send you: If you don’t know what you want, how can you get to where you want to be?
- #3 Fate or free will? Regardless of what you believe, we all have a purpose to being here. The tricky part is discovering what it is.
- #4 Don’t wait for your future to happen to you, you have to be vigilant in making your future happen.
- #5 Understand your dark side, but don’t give into it or indulge it.
- #6 Aspire to always help and teach others.
Level 2: Rules of Continuous Learning and Modeling
- #7 Watch or read media sources when you need inspiration. Reflect on why you like a certain movie or TV show, so you understand why it moves you.
- #8 Always be learning. Continue learning through books or any source that gives you new ideas on how to approach your work or feeds your passion.
- #9 Become self aware. If you aren’t, then how will you know you’re screwing up?
- #10 Accept responsibility and make peace with your decisions and the consequences of those decisions. They have created the person you are today. The trick is, do you like what you’ve created? If not, then how can you change?
- #11 Keep a lid on chaos. Never let situations or emotions get away from you. Be the calm in the eye of the storm as strength, reflecting confidence for the most vulnerable people in your life.
Level 3: Rules for the Actual Journey
- #12 Stay still and don’t move if you feel lost, so you can find yourself or let the opportunity find you.
- #13 Always be course correcting.
- #14 Surround yourself with trusted and loyal friends. Be prepared to deal with betrayal without ambivalence. But be prepare to forgive (if the person is sincere, I mean really sincere).
- #15 Learn to channel your inner extrovert, if you’re an introvert. Learn to channel your inner introvert, if you’re an extrovert.
Level 4: Rules of Adapting to Environment and Interacting with Others
- #16 Make peace with your weaknesses. We’re not perfect. Even your strengths will turn into weaknesses. The trick is knowing when your strength has become a weakness.
- #17 Master your emotions and body language. Use them strategically in life and work.
- #18 Mentor yourself via the Space Time Continuum. What would your future self tell your present self? How can you get back on track? What have you done well? What more can you do? What would you tell yourself as a child, teen, 20 or 30 something?
Level 5: Rules of Humility
- #19 Never take your success for granted. Always prepare for the worst case scenarios. Be prepared for two steps forward and one step back.
- #20 Be humble. Treat others well, don’t be arrogant, and don’t drink your own Kool-Aid.
Level 6: Rule of Being
- #21 Be compassionate.
Similar Posts:
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management: #12 Stay Still and Don’t Move if You Feel Lost
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management: #9 Become Self Aware
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management: #10 Accept Responsibility for Your Decisions
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management: #8 Commit to Continuous Learning
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management
