How do you define success?

When we were a baby, success was the moment you took your first step by yourself. Then in school, kids that scored higher and ran faster were the successful ones. And if you somehow made it through all that, you enter a world where you are judged by the position written on your card and how much money you make. As we get older and older, the bar we set for success goes higher and higher. This is only natural because as we age, we are able to perform task that are more sophisticated and complex.

The result is that some of us are paralyzed by the high expectations required to succeed. Compounded with the fact that it is harder to get noticed in this era of social media, many unsurprisingly decided that success is reserved to the talented and elite.

The solution to this, I believe is to redefine what success means. Success isn't just those life-changing breakthroughs or grand accomplishments. Those baby steps you take towards your goal are successes too.

You have to envision that the path to success is like a staircase and each step you climb is in itself a victory. Success is built-on other smaller successes. This means that you can accumulate these victories and slowly make your way up towards your goal.

The reason we do this is to harness the momentum and feedback we get from each step. We are hard-wired to expect results from our actions. So by breaking down your goal into smaller more achievable bits, you get constant feedback that you are heading the right way.

Success is something you want to do again. Failure is something you don't. - Jason Fried (37signals)

So as a reponse to John's post, my eureka moment was when I realized success also comes in bite-sized form. Remember to celebrate every small victory and let the momentum of succeeding get you up the stairs.