Being able to achieve a success metric is hard, but knowing which metric to achieve is even more important. Discover what you value and choose your own metrics for success, otherwise, your environment will dictate it for you, which could be unfulfilling for you.Work towards your own idea of success and don’t let “FOMO” make you feel like a failure because you’re not meeting someone else’s metrics for success.

Discover Your Values

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure.”

“There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency, something that should not be done at all.”

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.

Measure Results Over The Long-Term

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.

Measure Outcomes, Not Proxies

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.

Compare Yourself Only To Yourself

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.

Learn And Iterate

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.

Measure What’s Hard To Measure

“True success is attained only through the satisfaction of knowing you did everything within the limits of your ability to become the very best that you are capable of being.”

Wealth, job title, and happiness are some of the most common measures of success. It's important to measure success the right way because it informs how you spend your time and effort. If you don't measure success in terms of what's truly important to you, you can't work towards getting there.