Last year I set out to be awesome by accomplishing 30 things before I turned 30. For some reason, likely a lack of psychotherapy and a need to set arbitrary quantifiers of success, I set these goals for myself. But I essentially set myself up for disappointment by coming up with a list of 30 things I thought I should do in a year, on a limited budget with respect to both time and money.

I turned 30 on Sunday and accomplished just over 60% of my goals. That’s a “D” if you’re grading me. But it doesn’t mean I failed.

It just means that my definition of success was too arbitrary.  While I may not have completed the 30 things I set forth to do a year ago, that doesn’t make me a failure. It makes me someone who was too busy living life to be completing things on a list I wrote a year ago that don’t matter to me now.

The next time you don’t succeed at something, ask yourself if it matters. It is something that will make you happy, more fulfilled, or better at life? Failing at anything less than that, isn’t failing at all.