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    Defining Your Meaning of Success

    SF
    Sean FargoPublished January 10, 2015 · Updated October 22, 2026 · 1 min read

    Printable Worksheet

    Defining Your Meaning of Success

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    A mindful companion to this worksheet

    Living closer to what matters

    Values are the quiet compass under the noise of daily life. “Defining Your Meaning of Success” asks you to listen for what you most want your life to express, and to notice where your hours and your values have drifted apart.

    How mindfulness can help

    Mindfulness makes room for the stillness in which values become easier to hear. When the distraction settles, the deeper preferences of the heart get a word in. Practice helps us not only know our values but live closer to them.

    Gentle steps to try

    1. Take the long view. Picture yourself ten years from now looking back on this season. What would you hope was true about how you spent it?
    2. Choose three words. Pick three words for what you most want to embody. Write them somewhere you will see them daily.
    3. Check one choice. Look at one decision in front of you this week. Which option moves you toward your three words?
    4. Forgive the gap. Notice the gap between values and behavior with curiosity, not judgment. The noticing is the practice.

    A meaningful life is built one small alignment at a time. The point is not to live your values perfectly, but to keep returning to them.

    A note from Sean

    When I asked what success meant for my own life, I thought of people who were deeply present, compassionate, and resilient. That became my north star, and it felt right. I would ask your own heart what success is.

    Try this today. Pick one success from your life, small or large. Take a breath, recall it, and notice where you feel it in your body. Then write a few lines for the worksheet’s first two questions: why do I call this a success, and what quality of mine made it one? Save the other stories and the remaining questions for later in the week.

    Keep going: 10 Mindfulness Exercises for Work and Purpose and How To Find Fulfilling Work.

    This suits anyone at a turning point or weighing a goal or a career. If success feels tied to a failure or a loss, go gently. Stop when you need to.

    For teachers, therapists & coaches

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