How to Measure Success Effectively

How do you measure success? The key is the word effectively. One of the reasons this can feel like a moving target is because the term success is slippery and subjective.

How to Measure Success in Life

What does success in life mean? For you, for everybody?

Let’s define some terms to anchor your understanding.

The word success derives from “attaining a favorable result.” So, if we see most failures as lessons that needed to be learned, then an education-seeking mindset literally turns failure into success.

Life is another fun word to try and define. Let’s call it the non-professional areas of your time on Earth. Your success can be measured by what you hope to get as a result. This might mean in the number of friends you have, or the depth of your relationships, or the amount of free time you have as compared to working. It might be something totally perceived by others.

The best way to measure your success in life is to define what it is you were trying to accomplish in specific areas of your life. Then ask yourself how often do you accomplish said goals. Even a popular and financially wealthy person may have very little success in terms of health.

Measure of Success Examples

Measuring success can seem so comparative in nature that you only ever feel successful by looking at those as you perceive as less. How does one even measure happiness?

Here are a couple of examples to clear this up.

• Pick an area to improve: Romantic relationships
• Set a Goal: To establish a meaningful romantic relationship within one year
• Break the goal into smaller, attainable goals: Attend one single’s event per week.

Setting goals is not really setting anything. The desire is already there. It’s more about definingwhat you really want to yourself. Here’s another example:

• Pick an area to improve: Health
• Set a Goal: To lose 20lbs and feel better within 2 months
• Break the goal into smaller, attainable goals: Follow the ketogenic diet, and visit a gym or do yoga twice a week.

Often we do not feel successful because we have not defined our goals. When we define them, we set the stage. The game is on. Will you accomplish a specific and measurable goal or will you not? Only when you set goals and achieve your desired result, will you know that you are successful. Success has been weighed, it has been measured and attained.

How to Measure Success at Work

Is it based on income? Company profits? Advancement and titles?

There are many ways to measure success at work. The good news is you only have to choose the variable that matters most to you.

Maybe your boss hasn’t been happy with your work. Maybe your coworkers aren’t crazy about you either. You don’t seem to be advancing your titles or see any raises coming your way soon. So you’re unsuccessful, right?

What if the customer’s love you though. You may have made meaningful connections with them.

Your learning and skills may have grown as well. You know how to do more, and well, than when you began. That means greater employability. Good customer relationships means a broader network. More meaningful relationships means a more fulfilling workplace.

How you measure success should be based on what is most valuable to you. Otherwise, your success is really just someone else’s.

How to Measure Success in Business

Success in business just means money and market share, right? Maybe longevity?

Let’s see how the big dogs call it.

Forbes gives 6 points of measurement.

1. Profitability
2. Customer Satisfaction
3. Customer Growth
4. Employee Performance
5. Market Trends
6. Expectations

These are all different organs of the same body. These all point to the same answer, or question. Is your company operating as a healthy growing entity?

How to Measure Success of a Project

Once the project is complete, what are the ways in which to assess its success?

Here’s a short video that irons out the basics.

<div align="center" style="height: 100px; overflow-y: scroll; font-size: 13px;">
Transcript: hi I'm Suzanne Matson welcome to this
whiteboard session on how to measure
project success now as a project manager
you may be well aware of the tribal
constraints of time cost and quality
this is how we traditionally measure
project success project must be
delivered on time that means it must hit
the deadlines we must keep it within
budget that's the cost aspect and of
course it must be to the required
quality that's the requirements this is
traditionally how we've measured success
and this may be how you're doing it
today but there is a problem here the
problem is that even if you're
delivering an outcome on time cost and
quality it may not be adding value to
the end-users or to the business and
that means that there is no benefit
maybe you have experienced this by the
time you deliver something the strategy
has already changed or the users never
adopted it so the whole project was in
vain
so to truly measure success we therefore
need to take into consideration some
further dimensions those further
dimensions I have drawn up on the board
with a green triangle the tan cross
quality aspects are drawn up with a
purple triangle the aspects of the green
triangle which I call the strategic
aspects are the effect on the company's
strategic objectives so if you have
delivered something what effect is it
having is it helping your company to
reduce headcount is it helping your
company to get more customers what is it
helping to do what are the benefits we
also need to consider the relevant to
the users if the users aren't adopting
this because the timing is poor then
what is the benefit of your project
surely that is not a success and lastly
the sustainability aspect you must
consider the success of your project and
the sustainability aspect after 2 5 and
10 years are the materials still
sustainable is the solution durable so
you see it is when you consider
all of these aspects the tactical stock
triangle as well as the strategic
triangle that you can measure the
project's true success do not leave
these strategic aspects only to the
sponsor take control of it so that you
can ensure success thank you for
watching please visit us again at
projectmanager.com
</div>

Measure of Success Book

There are many different ways to view success, and different methods of measuring it. Finding the right recipe for yourself is the key.

Here are 5 notable books on measuring success.

1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
2. Find Your Hedgehog and Stop Working: When You Find Your Passion, Work Stops Being Work
3. eSCAPE: The 4 Stages of Becoming A Successful Entrepreneur
4. Measuring Success: Your Path To Significance, Satisfaction, & Leading Yourself To The Next Level.
5. Get Momentum: How to Start When You’re Stuck

What about spiritual success?