Success has different connotations for everyone. Some think you need to be successful to be happy, while others believe that you need to be truly happy in order to be considered successful.

With the new year in full swing, this is the time to determine what is and isn’t making the cut for your happiness and if that therefore defines your version of success.

According to Dora Mekouar from VOAnews, wealth, power, and position define America’s traditional view of success. However, she also unearthed a study commissioned by Strayer University that concluded quite the opposite.

The study found that 90 percent of American’s define success as having good relationships with friends and family and achieving personal goals. At the same time, 34 percent considered being rich an important factor of success.

Thinking that wealth contributes to success and therefore happiness isn’t necessarily the wrong opinion. Of course money affects our lives on a day-to-day basis. When wealth and power seem to be the only contributing factors to happiness, the wrong mindset of what overall success should look like is generated.

It is time to redefine success, to find a new perspective on what exactly makes you feel successful, and it all starts with one thing: your happiness. It is what you want, what you strive for, what you set your mind to — to not let others’ opinions of success shape your own.

A plethora of other elements can be the building blocks for success. Being loved by friends and family, for instance, or finally getting that raise at work, or even discovering that you have indeed lost those 10 pounds you were striving for at the beginning of the new year. Bottom line: It takes more than money to be successful; it takes a lot of things, but success can’t happen unless you try your hardest to achieve it.

Another important factor is figuring out when it is time to step up your game if you find yourself in a rut in the pursuit of success and happiness. For whatever it may be, taking the time to evaluate what needs to change and making the plans to change it are steps closer to your version of success.

The main thing is to be happy when you go to sleep and happy when you wake up, when you look forward to the day ahead. Redefine success for how you want it to be. There is no one-size-fits-all model. Shape how you want the aspects in your life to define your happiness and therefore success.

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Written by: Alex Dunn