How Do You Measure Success?

Social comparison bias explains that our judgments are often influenced by comparisons to other people. A benchmark makes it easier to make a judgment, but it will not necessarily be a reasonable or more accurate judgment.

Don’t measure yourself by what you’ve accomplished, but rather by what you should have accomplished with your abilities. True success is attained only through knowing you did your best to achieve your potential. 

It’s easy to measure financial success. You can see a number in your bank account and compare it to others’ bank accounts.

But many important things for a satisfying life, like mental and physical health, relationships, freedom, and fulfillment are harder to measure. Nevertheless, you should incorporate some qualitative analysis into how you measure success.

Success usually takes many failures to achieve. So don’t use immediate tangible results to define success. Consider what you’ve learned and how it will help you succeed in the future.

Don’t define yourself solely by your current circumstances. Consider who you are becoming.

It’s easy to measure proxies for success. Secondary metrics don’t always translate to business results and care must be taken so they don’t become a proxy for actually knowing and fulfilling your customers’ needs.

Do what helps you achieve success and measure success in terms of the outcomes you’re trying to achieve.

Dynamic inconsistency is a situation where the best plan for the future is not optimal when that future period arrives. We and our environments change and so must our concept of success.

Change how you measure success as you change as a person, else you risk wasting your efforts and even failure.