The Mental Game of Defining Success
Defining success for yourself is the ultimate mental game. Unquestionably, you are at your best when you feel successful. Moreover, whether you feel successful or not is a matter of how you define it. Therefore, the mental game you must win is defining success in a way that allows you to be at your best.
If you define success using variables that are far out in the future, you won’t win this game. Likewise, if you define success using things that have already happened, you limit how you will feel about success in the future. This is also a recipe for losing this game.
Consequently, the only definition of success that allows you to win this mental game is to define it within the context of the present moment. Indeed, what you do in the present is the most important variable in your success right now.
After all, happiness is an emotion you can only feel in the present. In addition, you can only make progress towards any given goal in the present. What’s more, balancing happiness and progress while being satisfied with both is arguably the most important factor in feeling successful. So, if you can define your success by the work you do to attain these two things each day you will win the mental game of defining success.