Success!

What is the key to success?

One piece of life advice I have heard is to:

"Surround yourself with successful people, as you are the average of your five closest friends". 

I agree with this to an extent. However, I disagree if it is only used with the conventional definition of success: money and degree titles earned, job titles and promotions achieved, assets accumulated. 

Perhaps a more productive definition of success, and one that I would use, is life balance and the simultaneous creation of happiness in oneself and in others. In this sense, it certainly is fantastic to hang out with people who make you smile, make you feel that you can achieve great things and feed your energy, especially when you can do the same for them.  

It seems that many communities are recognising this too. GDP is no longer sufficient to measure the success of a country. Bhutan’s Happiness Index is one of many measures praised for acknowledging that it is the collective happiness of people that determines success. Many ‘liveable cities’ indices also use factors determining happiness in their measurement, as do measures of ‘the best companies to work for’ or ‘the best universities to go to’.

A successful, inspirational and very much loved Uncle of mine made a speech at a recent milestone birthday of his, which went something like this: "many have asked me what the secret of success is, and I tell them that it really is a simple formula: get enough sleep, eat healthily, exercise well and most importantly, spend quality time with your family and friends".

Yet another piece of advice from him is "always keep a bottle of champagne chilled in the fridge, ready to celebrate, as you never know when an occasion may occur!" 

You can decide what success looks like for you, but make sure you celebrate along the way!