I’ve thought a lot about success lately. How it affects us as writers and how it affects us on our writing journey.

First, let’s start with the definition of success. According to the dictionary, success is the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

What I love most about this definition its simplicity. It’s so mindnumbingly simple.

You set a goal. You accomplish it. Boom, you’re successful.

But I’ve noticed as writers, it’s not always that easy, is it?

We compare ourselves to others. We base our success on other people’s success.

And when someone achieves success, especially success we think we’re due, it’s easy to feel lousy about yourself and be like:

What’s my point?

My point is that YOU control your success. YOU control your feelings of achievement. You control your destiny to greatness. Because there is no universal definition of success except for the ideals that you place on to yourself.

Be Happy For Others

Someone else succeeding is not going to keep you from being successful. Another writer getting that offer of representation or signing that contract is not keeping you from getting your offer or your contract.

Define Your Success

Success is not one size fits all. Set goals for yourself that are based on your dreams, your wants, and your desires. And start taking the steps to fulfill them. It could be something as easy as, “I want to write 2,000 every day, all month long.” And if you drive yourself to meet that goal, guess what? You’re successful. You’ve succeeded. You can keep going, achieve more goals! Nothing is too small or too large to be a considered a goal.

Do Not Compare Yourself to Others

It’s easier to say than to do. Trust me, I know. In the publishing world (and the real world) it’s easy to find a ton of people to compare yourself to. But the fact of the matter is, you will never be happy with yourself if you’re constantly comparing yourself to others, noticing what they have that you don’t or what they’ve accomplished that you haven’t. You don’t know the details of their journey and you can’t always control the factors around your own journey. But there are a few things you can control.

Work hard. Dedicate Yourself. Make It Happen.

You can make magic happen. All you need to do is set goals, work hard, dedicate yourself, and it will happen. I’m not saying it will happen overnight. I’m not saying in two days. But it will happen. You can do this.

So tell me. What goals are you setting for yourself? What things are you going to let go, because someone else’s success isn’t the same path as yours? What is your definition of success?