“I believe that being successful means having a balance of success stories across the many areas of your life. You can’t truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.” – Zig Ziglar
One of the most common responses I hear when I ask leaders how things are going is “Great, we’re busy.” We’ve talked before in this space (here, for example, and also here) about the importance of being productive as opposed to just being busy. You can’t say you’re a success just because you worked hard or worked a bunch of hours. If all you’re doing is marking unnecessary items off your to-do list, that’s not success.
Today I was involved in a conversation which reminded me that just being productive instead of busy isn’t alone a measure of success, either. Too many leaders do a bunch of productive things and have successful businesses, while at the same time having little to no relationship with their kids, not much of one with their spouse, no social life, etc.
Success is an all-encompassing thing. If you’re successful, that means you’re successful at work, with your family, with your friends, with your health, and on and on. All of those things have to be squared away for you to have a successful life.
Before you argue, note that I didn’t say all of those things have to be perfect. No one attains perfection in all parts of their life, at the same time, permanently. It takes constant work, and occasionally things get out of whack. The question is, then, what do you do when that happens?
Take a look at your entire life. I think work, family, friends, health (physical & mental), and spirituality/religion/philosophy pretty much cover everything, but maybe you can think of something else. Ask yourself: How would I rate each of those pieces of my life? Overall, do I feel good about them? Where don’t I feel like I’m in balance? How could I change that?
In the end, the goal is to provide huge amounts of value to the other people on the planet, and you can’t do that if your own life is off kilter. You don’t have to settle for success in just one area. You can have a great family life and have a great career. You can have a phenomenal social life and be physically healthy. It’s not an either/or situation. It’s a choice. Choose success.
