Why I've Learned to Celebrate the Daily Successes

In this series, professionals describe what numbers govern their happiness. Write your own #MyMetric post here.

To stay successful is to find balance in your life between your work and your personal time. I am naturally a workaholic — working nearly all the hours that I am awake. That means the metric for success is finding time to set aside work for my family. Specifically, I think of how much time I spend with my wife and family in Sm?gen at our summer home. It is truly the best place to get away from work in the kitchen, the emails, phone calls, and meetings. It's peaceful and serene, simple, and comforting. It might be the only place I actually unplug.

When I was young, we spent about 8 weeks a year here; relaxing, cooking, fishing and enjoying the summer. Now that life has evolved and changed so much for me, in terms of my geographical location and work load, on a good year I aim for three weeks. The reality is, that based on this system of measurement, I fail more often than I succeed. I can think of one or two years when I spent only 8 hours in Sm?gen. As any Arsenal fan will tell you, sometimes you have to go through a rough time to end up on top. Each year I start fresh and set a new goal like anyone else, but the busier my business becomes, the less time there is to set aside. 

Yearly successes can be overwhelming so measuring day by day is just important. On a daily basis, I look at how much time I'm able to spend being creative or close to my art. Through my creativity in food, I've been able to see, experience and share the things that make me happy. If I get one chance a day to share my craft with someone new or teach somebody the places anyone can go with drive and passion, I consider it a good day. Cooking classes with youth, exploring a new restaurant, tasting a different flavor that inspires me to get in the kitchen, these are daily successes. 

More posts on this topic:

• “Success Is a Moving Target. Here’s How I Know When I’ve Hit the Mark.” — Suze Orman, television host, author, motivational speaker, producer
• “Exit Interviews Reveal What Your Employees Really Think. Are You Ready?” — Shane Atchison, CEO at Possible
• “If I Can Help Women Invest Better, My Life Will Have Made an Impact” — Sallie Krawcheck, CEO and Co-founder of Ellevest
• “I Thought I Was Short on Time; Now I'm Long on Meaning” — Maynard Webb, Chairman, Yahoo!; Former COO, eBay
• “Maybe Woody Allen Was Right — 80% of Success Is Just Showing Up” — Whitney Johnson, thinker, author, speaker, advisor, coach
• “How to Turn the To-Do List into a 'Winner List'” — Naomi Simson, Founding Director, RedBalloon; Author, Blogger, Speaker
• “Wisdom from My Grandfather: You're Only in Trouble When Life Stops Being Interesting” — Nicholas Thompson, Editor of NewYorker.com
• “There’s No ‘I’ in Team. No ‘I’ in Success, Either.” — Bob Nardelli, Former Chairman and CEO of The Home Depot and Chrysler Corp.
• “When Was the Last Time You Were ‘in the Zone’?” — Neil Blumenthal, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Warby Parker