Recently in a blog post I declared my success and that I was proud of all that I accomplished. However, in my excitement of declaration I forgot to share how I define success!

In the photography industry there is a funny conversation that happens when two photographers meet as if it’s apart of doing business and networking:

Photographer 1: “Hey, so nice to finally meet you!”
Photographer 2: “Thanks, I’m excited we finally get to meet as well! Your work is amazing”
Photographer 1: “So, how many bookings do you have this year?! What are you charging?”
Photographer 2: “I’ve got 10 so far, it’s low. I start at €700. How about you, how are you doing?!”

These two photographers are comparing their pricing and the amount of sessions they have booked against each other to either make themselves feel better or perhaps they leave the meeting feeling worse because Photographer 1 has booked 5 sessions at €1000. If the milestones you set in your roadmap to success are money alone than perhaps you’ll feel great or depressed depending on the situation you are in. However, there are so many different factors in deciding what exactly your success will look like.

Know the bigger picture but set proper milestones.

I’m a believer in knowing what the bigger picture looks like as this is what gets me out of bed in the morning and after spending hours upon hours behind a computer I know exactly what I’m working towards. However, when the weight of the big picture is sitting on your shoulders you can easily get lost and feel like you aren’t measuring up if you haven’t set up proper milestones (street signs if you will) to know if you’re on the correct path or if you’ve strayed.

If your ideal situation is to have a brick & mortar space to hold your business in 3 years, GREAT! But what are the milestones you need in place to make sure you can see it a reality. Sometimes it helps to think backwards as to what your space will look like and everything you did to get there. I find this is a great way to know exactly what milestones you need to meet and what steps lead you where.

If you just dream of the bigger picture but never work through the milestones you’ll feel like you’re never going to reach your goal if you can’t see all the steps you’re making along the way.

Don’t wait for it to feel perfect.

Sometimes with all our dreaming and planning we can get so caught up in what the ideal situation can look like, that if we allow ourselves to only rely on that dream to dictate how everything will be, we will miss the mark.

We had on our travel goals this year to go on a beach windsurfing holiday as I love the beach, Mister loves windsurfing, and we were both longing for some hot weather. After saving, researching, booking our flight and hotel, packing, departing and landing we stayed a whole week on a Canary Island (see all the milestones there are just for going on holiday (; ). We spent a whole week by the beach completely relaxed. Although we watched many windsurfers Mister didn’t go out on the water once. Our goal was a beach windsurfing holiday and we easily could have said our time in the Canary Islands didn’t make the mark, but we know that we can’t wait for everything to be just right or perfect for us to say, SUCCESS!

Your success should only be relevant to your needs and wants.

When I started working towards building my ideal lifestyle and business I wrote down exactly what I wanted it to look like; everything I could possibly think of. I started with defining what my ideal day looked like, to how I wanted to treat my clients, how many I knew I could take on while providing the quality of service that I had said I wanted to give, to where I would live, and how my business would benefit my life.

Success is different for everyone: for some it might being able to purchase the latest tech toy, to get a manicure every week, to travel and run every marathon around Europe, to get rid of the tv in their living room, to have a baby, to finally cook a meal at home.

When you know exactly what your definition of success is it won’t matter when you’re questioned on how many sessions you have, how much you’re making or why you eat soup and salads for dinner every week. You know exactly what you’re working towards and won’t feel bad for declaring success!
 

Consider this: Your definition of success should be so personalized that it’s practically a fingerprint that you know it won’t suit anyone but you!

I am not claiming that following my advice will lead you to success or that I know everything about how to achieve goals, I’m just sharing my process of how I define my goals and how I know when to celebrate along the way. Everyone is on their own journey.