When you sell or transition your business, what’s next? If you sit in your favourite chair, look out the window and daydream about the future, what’s the vision that comes to mind?

What does successful transition mean for you? Have you defined it and put your definition on paper? As a business owner, you are probably in the habit of drawing a picture of the future but have you done this in context of transitioning away from your business?

If you were to walk up to 100 people and ask if they would like to have a successful future you would get a resounding “yes” from each and every one of them. However, if you asked the same 100 to define success and what it means to them, you would probably be met with puzzled looks and fuzzy responses. In my experience, most people have little or no idea what the word means to them.

Here’s one possible definition:

Success is doing, being, having, and giving what you’ve decided to do, be, have, and give.

According to this definition, if you are in the process of doing what you want, becoming what you want, getting what you want, and giving what you want, then you are successful. Otherwise, you’re not. So if you want to be more successful, do more of what you want, be more of what you want, get more of what you want, and give more of what you want.

So what is it that you really, really want?

Success is a personal choice. Buying into the popular media concept of success can make you crazy. To measure up to the images of success we see there, you have to drive the right car, drink the right scotch, cook with the right barbecue, luxuriate at the right spa, and the list goes on.

This picture may be appealing to those who are easily influenced by the desire to conform and be what others perceive to be a success. However, if you are confidently in charge of your own life, you’ll see those images for what they are − marketing that drives consumerism.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that the good things in life as portrayed in ads are undesirable; but, if we become short-sighted slaves to consumerism, deriving our worth from our possessions rather than from within ourselves, we set ourselves up for disillusionment and unhappiness. We all know people who have everything except personal satisfaction.

You must decide what you want, rather than being unduly influenced by the values and desires of others. Ultimately, you must define what the next chapter of life is going to look like and how you are going to move in that direction.

As a business owner, you have more autonomy and control than most people. You’re in a great position to transition your business and yourself so that your personal and business goals are aligned. And the only thing holding you back may be not taking time to articulate, define and plan what the future holds for you.

If you had a clean slate, what picture develops of a future in which you are doing what you want, having what you want, being what you want and giving what you want?