1. They do not view success as a destination they have to arrive at by a certain age. Rather, they intuitively know that real success is about creating a life that frees them from the confines of trying to achieve external measures of merit on some arbitrary set of rules.

Old souls view true success as being content where you’re at, no matter how far you may be from a certain destination. Success to them isn’t about setting goals to achieve, it’s all about having internal peace that isn’t dependent upon what’s going on externally.

2. They are not inclined to think that success is about working hard, churning out work 24/7, and proving others wrong with superhuman levels of productivity.

Instead, they believe that success is about managing each area of their lives in a balanced way and prioritizes soulful wellness above their outer image of competitiveness that others like to show off in society. They understand that nothing good can come from working at the expense of one’s own health just to hide unhealed wounds that come from persistent insecurities.

3. They know very well that aiming to be highly praised after death, except by a few loved ones, is only a vain goal, so their work means more to them if they’re able to make an impact in the present by creating value instead of aiming for something monumental that would be praised by future generations.

They are at peace with the fact that the lack of grandness in their legacy will not determine how well they’ve lived their lives. Rather, they just focus on how they can live fully right now.

4. They seek to improve their lives in order to nurture their inner spirit, not because they have some cutting-edge vision to fulfill with the end goal of making themselves prouder or validating their existence to people that only care about the next big thing.

Everything they pursue is all about maintaining inner peace and making their core beliefs self-evident in their daily living. Anything else that doesn’t align with this purpose isn’t worth spending time on.

5. They are terrible multitaskers because they prefer giving each task their undivided attention and like to spend quality time in whatever they’re focusing on at the moment. They don’t view accomplishing multiple things at once as success.

In their studies, they like to peruse the subject they’re studying instead of reading snippets of it while trying to update their Instagram, answer some emails, or responding to several texts at once. In their work, they like to focus on one project at a time and craft it into the best version it can be, instead of working on several projects at once like a human factory. Even though society and most employers put multitaskers on a pedestal, old souls know that multitasking is unsustainable, distracting, and detrimental to growth. They only view multi-tasking as instant gratification and nothing more.

6. Instead of viewing setbacks as obstacles, they view setbacks as opportunities to grow more enlightened.

They know that setbacks are life lessons that help them teach what humility truly means and how society’s rigid definition of great success isn’t what they should be aiming for because that would only make them turn a blind eye to failure and the suffering of others. They understand that they’ll fail and experience many setbacks, but instead of complaining about how much they’ve failed, they turn those experiences into enlightening truths that would help them grow more self-aware, humble, and empathetic to those who aren’t at the top of the world.

7. They are more motivated to create something beautiful out of pain instead of chasing after what would bring them most comfort.

When they experience great pain and are aware of the pain of others, they want to pursue work that does more than pay for a consumerist lifestyle. They know that they’re not here on earth just to fulfill some Capitalist agenda or show off how hard they work. Rather, they want to create meaning in everything they do, fill a void that can’t be filled with material items, and heal those who are suffering from lack of emotional support.

8. They are in love with the creative and soulful work that they do, not with the idea of what their work can give them.

Old souls are highly creative beings that value honest self-expression in alignment with their core values for the sake of inner peace and personal fulfillment, not because they want other people to applaud them for it. They do not pursue something just because it looks fun or because somebody with a popular success story is able to make millions off of it. Even when they do experience failure and adversity, they always rise again and keep working without feeling like they’re falling behind because they do not view success as a way to see who can race to the top in the shortest amount of time. They do not lose sleep over the fact that they haven’t made it on the 30 Under 30 list.

9. They believe that seeking greatness as a means of fixing their unresolved inner conflicts will only exacerbate insecurities and deepen the void within. They let go of the idea of greatness and focus on appreciating the smallest and simplest of joys that they can attain with every passing moment.

They know that anything they do out of pride and envy will only make them pursue society’s view of success (money, fame, prestige of job, social status, approval from parents, etc.) for the wrong reasons and leave them seeking more until they can no longer keep up with their heightening expectations. They only see those efforts as symptoms of fear, emptiness, and lack of self-love. This is why they choose to pursue holistic wellness by immersing themselves in what comes effortlessly, doing the most essential things that help their soul to become more aware of the magical moments in life, and above all, remaining unattached to the ideas of greatness that people highly covet in society. To old souls, living in accordance to these principles is an undisputed sign of success and the truest one there is.