Episode 1
How I Define Success and Live a Life of Meaning
Clarity about what success means to you is paramount, and I argue that articulating a personal, written vision is the single most consequential action an entrepreneur can take. I explain that when we delineate our aims — whether through a three‑year plan, a five‑year plan, or a lifetime framework that remains sufficiently fluid — we enable ourselves to make superior decisions and to resist the distraction of mere busyness. I discuss how an absence of explicit direction often produces a ricochet existence in which time, energy, and resources are dissipated on endeavours that do not advance our fundamental objectives. I show that embedding core drivers, such as empowerment or inspiration, into the fabric of our vision builds resilience and reduces the emotional toll of feeling adrift. I urge that committing the vision to paper or imagery enables timely course correction, builds momentum, and ultimately fosters a more fulfilled, purposeful, and effective life.
I present a concentrated exploration of how we must define success for ourselves. I describe how the word success has many meanings and why clarity matters to me. I explain that initial attractions to wealth and status often mask deeper yearnings for happiness, fulfilment and meaning. I recount my own immersion in personal development and why leaders in the field influenced my early thinking. I contrast the morning and the afternoon of life and argue that priorities shift from external symbols to impact and relationships. I emphasise practical clarity. I recommend writing a vision, whether in words, images, or a board, and urge listeners to treat it as a map. I show how clarity enables better choices, reduces stress and prevents a ricochet life. I close with an invitation to reflect, plan, and contact me for further dialogue.
Takeaways:
- I define success in personal terms, focusing on happiness, fulfilment, and meaning rather than possessions.
- We must create a clear written vision and concrete plans to guide decisions and maintain steady progress over time.
- I prefer a structured three-year plan with detailed steps, a five-year plan, and a flexible whole-life plan to preserve direction while allowing for change.
- I warn that working only in the business, rather than on the business, increases stress and leads to a life of mediocrity.
- We must write down our vision, use vision boards or maps, and check progress regularly so we don't drift off course.
- I urge entrepreneurs to prioritise clarity, research important decisions carefully, and use forceful momentum to generate consistent forward movement.
Transcript
Hello and welcome to the Success IQ podcast, the show for entrepreneurs who want to create and live an exceptional life.
Speaker A:I'm your host, Geoff Nicholson, and this is episode one.
Speaker A:So it is a beautiful day outside, the sun is shining, the kids are at school, which means for someone like myself who works at home, distractions are minimized massively.
Speaker A:And today what we're going to talk about is one of the key fundamental areas that I focus on when I'm supporting my clients.
Speaker A:But I guess first of all, what we need to understand is the word success is a very interesting one, isn't it?
Speaker A:Because it means so many different things to each of us.
Speaker A:And that for me is one of the key areas.
Speaker A:If you want to be successful, you have to make sure that you have defined it for you in the sense of you have to have a personal definition of what success actually is.
Speaker A:Because quite often what happens is when we are looking at, you know, when we're starting this journey or when we are looking at creating that level of success, or when we're starting our own business, we have this idea of, yes, I want to be successful.
Speaker A:And the first kind of like things that pop in is the money, you know, the lovely holidays.
Speaker A:But I think success means so much more.
Speaker A:I mean, my personal definition of success and the one that quite often is, is once when we chip away at the, if you want the shiny things, quite often what we come down to is fundamentally we want to be happy, we want to be fulfilled, and we want to have some meaning.
Speaker A:And I think that's really the key area.
Speaker A:And that's very much how I look at success.
Speaker A:Because also we're looking at our global model as well.
Speaker A:Ultimately all of our areas want to be.
Speaker A:Well, I guess realistically we want to have a cool, cool level in all of our areas.
Speaker A:Our relationships, our work, our spiritual side, you know, all of those things have a mass effect on how we show up on a day to day basis.
Speaker A:So when we talk about defining what success means, it's quite often when I'm speaking to people and if I'm honest, I did this myself, is we start this road and we absorb ourselves with all of these personal development books.
Speaker A:I mean, as I'm recording this, right in front of me is my bookshelf and I must have thousands of personal development books.
Speaker A:I have no other type of book at all in my office.
Speaker A:I just have personal development books.
Speaker A:If I go onto my Audible account on my Kindle, 90% of the content on there is personal development.
Speaker A:So there's a big Part of me that when I started this I just threw myself in.
Speaker A:And one of the first people I listened to was Tony Robbins because he was, you know, he was well established, he knows what he's doing.
Speaker A:And that was something that I really looked into and started to, to absorb.
Speaker A:But what I sometimes find is, is the catch is people don't always listen to what these, what these are the leaders in their fields talk about and they get lost in, I guess, following the rabbit down the rabbit hole.
Speaker A:So initially when I started was no, I want to make, you know, X amount of millions of pounds.
Speaker A:I want to have the, the, the Porsche 911 or the Maserati or the Aston Martin or the Bugatti, whatever it is on the drive.
Speaker A:I want to go to the Burj Al Arab and six star hotels and all of that sort of stuff.
Speaker A:And there's nothing wrong with that if that's what you want.
Speaker A:But the truth is, is the more and more you define what success means, quite often you, you realize that there's deeper things that would mean a lot more to you as you, as you go down the journey.
Speaker A:And Wayne Dyer, I remember watching this great film with Wayne Dyer in called the Shift and he talks about the morning and afternoon of our lives.
Speaker A:So the morning we're kind of focused on all the bling.
Speaker A:We're very, we're probably more selfish in some aspects, but we believe that the, the big cars and the huge houses all represent a idea of that we are being successful to the outside.
Speaker A:But internally we're probably not as developed as we want to be.
Speaker A:But then as we go through to the, the afternoon of our life, we sort of look and identify the more important things.
Speaker A:And you know, if you've listened to episode zero, you know, my story, it was certainly a massive big, I get crucible moment in my life where I started to look at things and realize that, you know, yes, I would love a nice car and all of those sort of things, but actually it's not the defining factor for me.
Speaker A:It's about impact to others, supporting them and empowering them and inspiring them and making sure that my, my family, my kids live, you know, enjoy life and get experiences and all of that.
Speaker A:And actually I, I enjoy life because that's also important too.
Speaker A:So it's, it's looking at all of this thing, all of these things in our lives and really getting clear on what it is that you are actually wanting to create.
Speaker A:And when you can understand how you define success, then you are able, in my view, anyway, you are then able to make the.
Speaker A:A better set of choices within your business and within your personal life to move you in the direction that you want to go.
Speaker A:Because, you know, and then all of a sudden, as we talk about this and we're talking about, you know, clarity, really in this section, this episode, what we really need to understand is, is that when we have the clarity, we understand the direction we need to go.
Speaker A:Because, you know, we've all heard the, the, those quotes and those little stories about, you know, would you go to an airport and not have any idea where you are going?
Speaker A:And the truth of the matter is you wouldn't.
Speaker A:You know, you would have an idea of where you're going.
Speaker A:You would have a plan, you would have a structure.
Speaker A:You would have researched what you want, wanted to do, where you wanted to go, the types of places around there.
Speaker A:You would have so much information that when you get there, you.
Speaker A:You would be able to have a better plan, a better idea of what you're doing, and you can make the holiday more enjoyable.
Speaker A:So when you think about that, and the truth of the matter is, the more and more people I see, the more and more people I speak with, the more and more I identify that the majority of people don't have that sort of clarity.
Speaker A:And they wonder why they are not achieving the levels of success that they are, they desire, they are pursuing.
Speaker A:Now, there's other.
Speaker A:There's other things that get in the way.
Speaker A:There's other things that they need to look at as well.
Speaker A:But one of the first things is, is you need to have the, you need to have that vision, that definition, what it is that you're wanting to achieve.
Speaker A:And you know, if people plan, if more people plan their holidays than they do their lives, then there is no wonder why people aren't achieving that level of success, that level of happiness, that level of fulfillment, because they aren't doing the work that's necessarily to do that.
Speaker A:The other thing is, is what happens is as entrepreneurs, quite often we get stuck in the busyness of business.
Speaker A:We just get stuck working in our business rather than on our business.
Speaker A:Now, that can take us away from doing things in our personal lives, you know, making sure that we are spending that quality time with our families and friends and ourselves.
Speaker A:You know, we.
Speaker A:What you may find is, because you have lost that definition in and lost that idea of clarity or perhaps never even had it in the first place, you are more likely to kind of like what I call live a ricochet life, which is basically, you just bounce from situation to situation.
Speaker A:And in my view that is actually living a life of mediocrity because you are not looking at your life and going, well, hang on, this is the direction I want to go.
Speaker A:And if you have an idea of this is the direction you want to go.
Speaker A:And the truth of the matter is in some cases you, you may have no idea how you want to get there, but the fact is is that you can, you have that courage to believe and to.
Speaker A:I don't necessarily like the word dream in some aspects, but dream is a great one for you to go.
Speaker A:You know, okay, this is what I want to have to do.
Speaker A:You know, if we think about the greats, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, you know, all of those people have had a dream to go.
Speaker A:I am pursuing something bigger, bigger and better.
Speaker A:And I think that's an amazing thing.
Speaker A:And ultimately if we're creating our own businesses, we have got the courage to go and do that.
Speaker A:Now other people do it in different ways, but the truth of the matter is, is that if you are wanting to stretch, if you are wanting to go out there, you've got to stop for a second and just really think about what it is that I need to do.
Speaker A:And majority, in fact, if you look at majority of the personal development books, they'll all talk about be clear on what you're wanting to do.
Speaker A:You know, Gary Vaynerchuk has his ultimate dream is to buy the New York Jets.
Speaker A:Now whether you agree with the way Gary Vaynerchuk, I'm going to call him, like Gary, as if I know him.
Speaker A:But if you're going to, if you're going to think about, if you agree or disagree with what's going on with Gary and how Gary does stuff and how he talks about it and everything else.
Speaker A:The truth of the matter is is no one can discount the, the sheer passion and, and vision that he has of what he wants to achieve.
Speaker A:If you look at, you know, all of this, all of this type of stuff, you have to have that drive to in order to move you in the direction that you want him to go.
Speaker A:But if you are not, and if you have not got that idea in that vision clear in your head and written down, then you are more likely to make a mistake.
Speaker A:See the benefit of actually having a vision written down and having something written down.
Speaker A:Now, some people choose to write it in words.
Speaker A:Some people choose to draw it.
Speaker A:Some people choose to create images of on a board or something like that.
Speaker A:I don't really care how you do it.
Speaker A:I just think there's an importance of making sure that you have stuff written down in a way that allows you to identify if you're moving in the right direction.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker A:Quite often I'm working with frustrated, stressed out of their minds people who, when we talk about stuff, that they're lost, they're.
Speaker A:They've lost track of where they are going.
Speaker A:And when I talk about where's their vision, quite often they'll go, I haven't got one.
Speaker A:But if you think about it, if your vision is, let's say, a map of what you are wanting to do with your life, just like if you were, you know, going on a road trip, you use your map to make sure if you get lost, you can bring yourself back.
Speaker A:And the more detailed that map is, the more likely you are to identify when you are moving off track quicker.
Speaker A:Because the last thing what I want for people is, and I've done this myself, and again, a lot of this stuff is from lessons that I've learned and don't want people to go through the same mistakes is if you think about it, is if you are spending time, energy, money on something that is taking you away from ultimately what you want to achieve, then actually what.
Speaker A:And then it's taking away, it's causing more stress, it's causing you more stress because you don't seem to be getting the results that you want.
Speaker A:But half of the time the problem is, is that it's because you're moving away from actually what you want.
Speaker A:If you are allowing people to pull you away from what you're.
Speaker A:Your drive is, your vision is your clarity, your definition of success is if people are pulling you away from that, you are going to start feeling lost, it's going to start having an emotional effect on you.
Speaker A:And quite often with people who are really passionate about what they are doing, there's a visceral effect as well.
Speaker A:And the damage, both in motivation, in how you manage your, your mental health, the stress levels, everything that goes along with that, is that you are not, you're not moving in the right direction.
Speaker A:So therefore it's not beneficial to you.
Speaker A:I once did this, this experiment with someone and they asked me what was my key, my key driver in my life.
Speaker A:And for me there was two that were very close.
Speaker A:It was inspiration and empowerment.
Speaker A:And when they went through this technique, they said, what if we were to remove empowerment?
Speaker A:So let's say empowerment was the key one.
Speaker A:If we were to remove empowerment from your life and you were to live life without that, how would life feel?
Speaker A:And it was the strangest thing, because I just felt completely empty.
Speaker A:And I know that that is a big part of why, you know, I believe it's also a big part of why I went through what I did.
Speaker A:I believe it's the result of why I went through what I did.
Speaker A:I believe that that's ultimately what I was put on this earth to do.
Speaker A:And I've got to embrace that and just put it forward.
Speaker A:And we all have something about that now.
Speaker A:Not everyone is going to be I want to feed the world, you know, not everyone is going to be, you know, I want to empower people like what I do.
Speaker A:Some people it is, I just want to create successful businesses.
Speaker A:Some people is, is that I only want to work a certain amount of time a week so I can spend the rest of my time on the golf course or racing cars or learning to fly or going on cool holidays.
Speaker A:And it's.
Speaker A:The important thing is, is it's making sure that you are injecting as much of your, your passion into your vision so you can see what it is that you're wanting to do.
Speaker A:And that's the challenging thing.
Speaker A:But the, the challenge initially is just to get started because so many people are not putting in the, the effort to get clear on what it is that they're wanting to do.
Speaker A:And anything else, the majority of anything else that you would do that requires time, energy and money, you probably will research more than actually doing it in your own life, you know, so if you're going out and buying a TV or if you're going to invest in broadband, I don't know about you, but when I'm looking to move broadband, I can spend hours researching who is the best supplier, what offers do they do, what are the additional bonuses that I can get from that.
Speaker A:So when I come to make a decision, I know exactly what it is I need to make.
Speaker A:But like the holidays, so many of us don't do that in our own lives.
Speaker A:We just bounce and it's time for forcible momentum that goes, okay, this is what I'm going to do.
Speaker A:I'm going to push through that and that's the direction I'm going to go.
Speaker A:And then that bit injects more motivation.
Speaker A:You feel better about yourself because you can see what you are wanting to do.
Speaker A:Because you have a plan, you're able to make better decisions that steer you and keep you on track.
Speaker A:And if you do wobble and you do fall off, which quite a lot of us do, it's okay because you know very quickly when you need to get back and where you need to get back on track in order to carry on.
Speaker A:So I think it is such a key part of developing a success iq, making our lives much more enjoyable, much more rewarding, much more fulfilled.
Speaker A:It's about making sure that you understand one, what success means to you.
Speaker A:And also it's getting that clarity of what is it that you're wanting to achieve in your life.
Speaker A:And quite often what you find is, is having a rough idea of what you want to achieve because majority of the time is it's, especially when we're looking right into the future, it can be quite sort of, I don't.
Speaker A:Fluid, let's say fluid because realistically I have an idea of what I want to achieve in the next 10 years.
Speaker A:But a lot of things can happen in 10 years time.
Speaker A:So I much prefer to have a sort of a three year plan, a five year plan and a whole life plan that I'm quite happy and comfortable for the sort of the whole life plan to be quite fluid.
Speaker A:But I want the three year plan to be a lot more, a lot more rigid, a lot more planned, a lot more detailed.
Speaker A:So that can help me move in my direction that I wanted to go.
Speaker A:And I think that when we start looking at this and when we start experimenting with that, that's when things can get really exciting because you, you start creating more trust in yourself as well.
Speaker A:I think sometimes that when we can like bounce from situation to situation, we feel that we're in loss of.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:I was gonna say in lose of control, but I don't even, that's not even a word.
Speaker A:So we feel that we've lost control.
Speaker A:And of course when we feel that we've lost control, that increases our stress levels and everything else and we need to sort of rein that in and just go, okay, these are the things that I can control because these are the things that I am, I am looking for.
Speaker A:So I just wanted to share with you one of the key areas which is the clarity, the definition and I would love to hear what you, you think.
Speaker A:You know, how long, how much time do you take in defining what you want in your life?
Speaker A:Have you got a plan?
Speaker A:If not, what have you felt and how have you found not having a plan is perhaps you have one now and you can compare the difference.
Speaker A:But I'd love to hear what's what you think.
Speaker A:If you would like to email me any questions, you can email me on podcasteff nicholson.co.uk or you can look at my website where you can get all my social media links which is www.jeff nicholson.co.uk everything will be in the show notes below and also is Please subscribe to the show so you can get the latest shows when they come live, which is every Wednesday.
Speaker A:And you know we can share and give me a review just so we can spread the word and you can support me in making an impact to other people's I hope you have a great day.
Speaker A:I'd like to take this moment to wish you the greatest success and I'll see you soon.
Speaker A:Sam.
