You spend each day chasing your professional goals and working hard to enrich your career, seldom pondering on whether youre achieving your personal successes. What are personal successes? Its not as straight forward as you may think. Its that feel-good achievement thats beyond corporate success you may even say its a transcended state of personal satisfaction.

And why shouldnt you be thinking about your personal successes, after all dont you love the job that you do? Shouldnt it be rewarding, even fulfilling, on a personal level? Like I said, its not always easy. You need to look beyond the obvious and examine ways that will help you gauge your personal successes.

Sure profitability, market share and shareholder value are all great ways to measure your accomplishments. But you want to look beyond that, and consider the impact youre making on:

Irrespective of what line of business youre in or what role youre playing everything you do should target having a bigger impact. This impact is what will help you feel personal achievement in an intangible way.

This could be something as simple as reading a blog or article which provides you a new perspective. While we spend plenty of time staying updated about the industry we work in, its important to look at other things going on in the world. Such learning could be useful in conversations with other leaders who may take an interest in you and in turn could possibly impact your business.

Another way to learn something new is to look within your organization. As a leader you should be spending time with your team to learn something about them. This shouldnt necessarily be focused about the duties they perform, instead it could be learning about what motivates and drives them. And what it spells out to is one of my favorite topics engagement.

Theres no greater reward than the feeling of being there for someone in their time of need. While you chase your own goals its important to stop and look around you at who is falling short. Leaders are guides and counselors who are a source of knowledge and problem solving. Here, I believe that a good leader plays the role of a mentor a guidance provider who your team can turn to for help, support and wisdom. Learn more about modern mentoring in this excellent TEDx talk from Karen Russell:

Honestly, how good is it when you leave work feeling accomplished when you just want to step out and say Yes! I did it!

It may not happen often, as there will be days when youre wrapping up and listing all the things you have to do the next day. And hence, when you do leave feeling satisfied with your days achievements, make sure you list it off as a personal success. Its something you should be happy and fiercely proud of.

Its easy to get caught in the rat race where day in and day out youre slowly going down a downward spiral of monotony. Believe me, it will catch up with you. And thats around the time when you start to question what youre doing and why youre doing it. This is why your personal successes are important to list out and strive to achieve. These will keep you motivated and content with the career you have embarked upon.

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What is Your Personal Success Gauged By? | Paul Keijzer ...