“The only real measure of achievement is whether it leaves you feeling fulfilled.” – Su Mason

Do you see yourself as successful or fulfilled?

Success in life by today’s standards is all about getting rich, buying that big house, getting a nice car. Perhaps you have a high paying job, own a house with picket fences, go on expensive holidays, own a nice car. Yet, you find yourself still unsatisfied and constantly feeling a sense of an unfulfilled life.

Why is that so? Let’s look a little deeper into this.

What is a fulfilling life?

A fulfilling life is made up of a balance of all facets of your life. It is fulfilled by meeting your financial needs comfortably, great relationships,  living out your passion, having a true sense of your self-identity that leads you to achieve your ultimate dream.

In the Four Hour Work Week, Tim Ferris wrote about the Fat Man in the Red Ferrari; the story rings very true about how a rich Wall Street fella who earns lots of money and drives around in his red Ferrari is fat, unhealthy, overworked, probably spends little time with people that really matter. The Red Ferrari is a critical symbol of success in this case but for you it could be other material possessions.

You must have also seen or met that Fat Man and thought oh how nice it would be to earn that much but is that ultimately what you want? Or is what you really want a side effect of what the money can get you? The side effects could be security, respect, freedom and these are the things that will fulfill you. Not the Red Ferrari.

Yet, the Red Ferrari does not always buy you that because you have not figured out what is fulfilling for you. You might choose the Red ferrari as the goal because it is tangible, because you can show it off, because you can see it, touch it, feel it, hell even smell it.

The Red Ferrari may mean success in your money earning capacity but it does not mean total fulfillment. To find fulfillment, you need to find your success in other parts of your life.

What are your key factors of success?

Success in the different parts of life holds different meaning for each of us. You need to find out what you mean personally by success.

Just imagine right now what success means to you in career, your passion in life, your relationship, your lifestyle and your self-identity.

What can you see, hear and feel? Does it sit right in your gut? Does it ring true to your ears or does it seem right to you?

When you can see, hear and feel all that defines success to you can you say to yourself with certainty what it all means for you?

All of these scenes and images that you have just imagined are your factors of success or tangible representations of success.

Sometimes, you may find it difficult to really connect with these factors of success because someone else have told you what you should do to become successful. You may be living out another person’s dreams but your own. Which is why you need to think of the next question:

Does this factors create a sense of fulfillment in you?

Fulfillment = Successes in things that represent the path to your ultimate dream

Your ultimate dream is this: becoming the person you truly want to be and achieving that physical, mental and emotional state where you know you are living to your potential.

The ultimate dream just like success factors vary from person to person. Only you know what you really want.

Once again, can you imagine what it would be like when you are living your ultimate dream? Can you see it, feel it, hear it? Does living out the dream excite you?

Now write everything that you have just experienced and thought of onto your notepad.

You, my friend have just created your ultimate dream plan. You can now see what you really want and you can now see that success factors along the way are simply goal posts along your way to achieving your ultimate dream and and do not define you as a person.

Conclusion

As you can see now, all of the traditional symbols of success do not make you, they are simply goal posts along the way that helps get you to a fulfilled life.

Along the way, you will find that the goal posts will change, your ultimate dream may very well change too but what you now have is a way to see that you have much to offer and that it is possible to live a fulfilled life.

Start creating your plan to a fulfilling life today.

How do you define what it means to be successful in life? Do you already have a plan in place?

If you are stuck with figuring out what a fulfilling life means for you, perhaps you can get started here with how you can design your ideal life.