The Success Test: How Did You Do This Year?

December is traditionally the time of year when most people get all in their feels reflecting on the ups and downs of their year. What was successful in 2023? What am I going to change in 2024? But we usually don’t take the time to personally define what we mean by “success.” To a lot of people, career success looks like a better title or a higher salary— but should success be measured in such a narrow, black-and-white window? Let’s dive into the topic with Michael Hale Jr, Project Manager for the Office of Mobility Innovation for the City of Detroit.

It’s a Friday in December— are you really working anyway? Here’s a link to the full convo.

If you’re starting your Christmas movie marathon and only have a minute:

In the spirit of transparency, feeling success in my career in the past couple of years has been low-key difficult. For one, I’m making less money. And I’m honestly not sure if I’ll ever get back to where I was. Talk about a harsh realization. Secondly, that imposter syndrome really hits hard some days. But, despite those negative feelings, I still feel successful (most days). Want to know why? Michael said it best when he said, “Is success me going to work every day or is success me finding out why I’m here every day.”

Maybe your career and your success don’t have to be measured against the way the people around you are defining it. You know what I get to do? I get to talk about things that I love and that I’m passionate about every day. I get to work from home which means I get to spend time with my family. Heck, I get to send you a weekly newsletter that, fingers crossed, might help some of you change your career and your life. If I’m looking at the idea of success and what my values are, I’m starting to think maybe I’m not doing too bad.

Michael made the point that now more than ever we need to stop and evaluate who told us that glitz and glam and promotions and climbing the corporate ladder was “success” in the first place. Success should be defined on an individual level. For Michael, it took both him and his wife losing their jobs in the same year to take a step back and reassess. Now, success to him is defined as being the best version of himself that he can be and showing up and supporting the people in his life every single day.

In life and definitely in your career, you’re not going to make every shot. And as cliche as it sounds, you just have to keep on trying. Sure I could drop a Gretzky quote or some “land amongst the stars” stuff here— but instead, I’m going to say close out this blog and take 4 minutes to list out a few 2023 moments that were a win for you. Now that looks like success to me.