Discover Your Purpose: First define your success definition

First work out your success definition

An important step towards finding your purpose in Christ is first to understand your definition of success. How can you know you have found it if you don’t know what it looks like? It is also important to realise that the common definitions of success for Not Yet Christians, and which are found in many secular books and media, are likely to contain mistruths and possible distractions from your search. They may also contain a part of the Christian definition but not all of it.

Common worldly definitions of success include:·

• Increased personal happiness.

• Making money.

• Doing the most good for the most people.

• Helping others.

• Building a good life for your family.

A Christian definition of success will include centring your life around Christ and serving others. Centring your whole life on one or a few of the above secular definitions of success has some weaknesses. One of the more obvious faults with some definitions of secular success is not recognising that success should in some way involve the improvement of others. A success definition that involves increasing only your wealth, happiness or capacity that misses this aspect is likely to be flawed. Even a pursuit of personal knowledge or self-improvement is likely to suffer from this.

Chasing happiness in a fallen world is also likely to lead to problems. Bad things also happen to good people, and no one knows when their time on this world is up. If your success definition is based on an ever-increasing upward slope of happiness and an obviously unhappy event takes place, such as a large natural disaster or family death, how do you find meaning? How do you keep getting happier without ignoring the obvious problems in this world? Happiness may be a by-product of true success but should not be the goal.

Similar weaknesses can be found in any definition that centres on only one aspect of life and pursuing that to the exclusion of other aspects. The obvious love of money trap is also present.

As a Christian, it is worth giving your definition of success more thought. A definition used by John C Maxwell in Leadership Gold is:

1. knowing your purpose in life,

2. growing to reach your maximum potential, and

3. sowing seeds that benefit others.

A well-thought-out definition of success will remain stable regardless of your circumstances. It can act as a plumbline for use when major life decisions present themselves. I would advise using John Maxwell’s definition or a slight variation as your working definition, and then revisit that after completing the exercises to find your purpose in Christ.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33