DEFINING SUCCESS WORKSHEET

1. What does “success” mean to you, generally speaking?

To me, success means several things. For example, it means having my basic needs met
such as food, water, clothing, and a home to live in. It also means personal happiness
like having good relationships with my family and friends. Furthermore, I consider
success to be filling your personal needs and desires. This can look very different from
one person to the next, but, may include a job/career, or certain personal possessions.
Lastly, success to me can include your health. For example, being able to have both
physical and mental strength, flexibility, and stamina to be engaged in everyday physical
activities. For example, walking, biking, playing sports, positive outlook, etc.

2. What does “academic success” mean to you, specifically?

Academic success is being able to meet learning expectations for whatever course,
program, workshop, conference, or schooling task you are taking on. It is furthering
your knowledge of a particular subject or topic. For example, academic success in this
course would mean passing the class and achieving over a 95% final mark (based on my
own goal and definition of academic success in this course).

3. List 4 people that you think of as “successful” and beside their names write what makes
them “successful.”

1. Oprah Winfrey. She persevered through many life challenges, is a world-famous talk
show host, and has her own network now (OWN).

2. Wayne Gretzky. He played and coached professional hockey (broke many records),
has a great family, and even has his own restaurant called “Gretzky’s.”

3. Jeff Bezos. He is the founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Amazon. He is
extremely rich and has influenced the way a massive amount of people (worldwide) shop.

4. Betty White. She was a famous actress and also an animal humanitarian. Her
passion for animals has encouraged massive support for animal shelters (and continues
to do so even after her recent death).

4. “There is only one success—to be able to spend your life in your own way.”—
Christopher Morley.
What would it mean for you to “live your life in your own way? What would this
involve?
What, if anything, stops you from doing this?

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 DEFINING SUCCESS WORKSHEET

For me, to live up to Christopher Morley’s idea of “live life in your own way” means to
sit down and define what that specifically would look like in my personal life. I take the
message as not comparing to society’s standards of “how life should be” making it what
I want it to be. For example, where I live, how I live, decisions I make involving my
family, career, home, health, etc. It is encouraging me to do what I think, feel, and want
to do. It would involve some deep self-reflection and decisions around practicality.
Some of the things that may stop me from doing this would be financial means and
personal hesitations as I tend to think of how the impact of the decisions I make affect
others.

5. Who do you consider to be the greatest influence on your life? How far do your ideas
about “success” reflect the influences of that person or group?

I consider the greatest influence on my life to be my mother. My ideas about “success”

coincide with many of her teachings and ideals. Her philosophical beliefs on the benefits
of hard work and kindness resonate strongly within me. Finally, my mother was a solid
life-long learner and I too recognize that she was extremely influential on me in this
manner.

Adapted in part from: http://www.palgrave.com/resources/sample-chapters/9780230250185_sample.pdf

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