How do you define SUCCESS?

Beloved,

Here’s a little assignment for you:

Take five minutes and write down your personal definition of SUCCESS.

What does that mean to you?

What does that not mean to you?

If you were going to define it personally, what would need to be included?

This definition of success should be relevant no matter whether you are reflecting on a life, a year, a week, a day or a specific activity. 

Here’s why I think this is worth doing.

If you don’t define success for yourself, then surely you will live your life attempting to fit yourself into someone else’s definition of success!

That is not what I want for you, or for me, or for anyone.

As a matter of interest, here’s the Oxford definition of success:
“The accomplishment of an aim or purpose.”

Upon reading that definition, a few observations arise for me…

a) I had better know my aim or purpose out of the gate, otherwise success is, by definition, unachievable.

b) success is, by definition, all about accomplishment. 

Here’s the Oxford definition of accomplishment:
“Something that has been achieved successfully.”

So what have we learned thus far?

a) we must know what our aim or purpose is if we wish to succeed

b) success is directed related to achievement and accomplishment

c) what we are achieving and accomplishing is perhaps culturally implied as active states of doing, rather than states of being… And if states of being feel relevant to our own experience of a successful life, we need to define it as such.

I bring all of this forward because it’s January, and societally there’s a lot of pressure and noise about resolutions, goals and achieving.

In my humble opinion, there’s not nearly enough questioning of this status quo. Nor is there enough honoring of the winter season and the clear slow pace that nature is taking while we humans get all worked up around ambitiously diving headfirst into the new year.

If you haven't noticed, pretty much all of the content I’ve brought this month is aimed to encourage you to rest, slow down, and take the time you need to orient yourself to this new year.

As Tricia Hersey says, “rest is resistance.”

And as I explored in my podcast called “Decolonizing Ambition”, this is a long game. The purpose is clear: we cannot continue to work ourselves into the ground. We cannot continue to allow stress and burnout to be the status quo. 

Not on my watch. Not even as a super prolific, hyper-achiever.

Sustainability. I’m here for it.

So, what is your personal definition of success?

I’ll go first:

Success: a victorious sense of fulfillment that accompanies courageous action and peaceful states of being.

There you have it. For me, success implies courageous action combined with a peaceful state of beingness. 

From this definition, I can pretty clearly assess whether today, or yesterday, or last year, feels like a success. 

[Note to self: no mention of amount of money I made, status of my business acclaim, or Instagram followers. Hmmm… ]

Alight, now it's your turn!

Hit reply and send your definition my way. I’d love to see what came through for you.

To your boundless success,