When Is A Failure Not A Failure?

Last week I had a session with a client during which he complained that he felt like a failure. When pressed about what he felt he had failed at the list was pretty short. He thought that he should have been a better financial provider for his family. I then challenged my client on which areas other than financial, he was successful in, and it got me to thinking about whether his definition of success was actually valid or not. For most of us, when we talk about, success we do mean Financial or Material Success.

Material Success revolves around the things that you own or things you can buy. This includes the size of your house, the brand of your car(s) and where you vacation.

But there are different types of success that can also give you significance and different areas have different significance for different people.

Commercial Success refers to how successful you are in your job or business. This includes how much money you earn, your position or title in the company, your professional reputation and how quickly your business is growing.
Emotional Success relates to the way that you feel and the way that things in your life make you feel. This includes your mental health, your relationships – particularly with your spouse and family, self-esteem and your outlook on life
Intellectual Success is measured by how much you are challenged and are learning. This obviously includes academic success but also covers your ability to learn new things quickly in the workplace, your ability to understand the world around you and your need for challenge in order to keep you engaged.
Spiritual Success involves how content you feel about your spirituality or religion. This might include having a sense of belonging or understanding your greater purpose.
Physical Success reflects how your body feels and how you feel about your body. This involves not only your physical health, but also your level of fitness, how much energy you have and also your weight.
Your Evangelical Success is a measure of how much influence you have over other people. How good is your informal leadership qualities, your ability to inspire other people and their willingness to follow your lead. In a subtler form, it may also reflect how well people remember you.
Environmental Success measures your interaction with the environment around you -how it helps you and how you help it. This will include the way that your home and general surroundings make you feel and how environmentally friendly your lifestyle is. Do you compost your scraps, cycle to work sometimes or volunteer for an environmental charity?
Time Success is all about your time on earth. How long you will live – obviously connected to Physical Success. How well you manage your time. How you prioritize what you spend your time on
Finally, Collective Success is all about how you get along with other people. This includes
how well you work or play in a team and how productive you are when in a team. Do people know, like and trust you?

If you can think of other areas of life that you can have success in, I’d love to hear from you, because I’m always willing to learn new things (that’s the Intellectual Success side of me!). On the other hand, if you are struggling to achieve success in a specific area of your life give the coaches at Jager a call on (440) 385-6737. We have worked with dozens of local business owners to help them improve their sales, profits, cash and time.