What does success look like to you?
Take a moment to think about it. Where are you? Who are you with? What are you doing?
For a lot of people, the image of success involves a person in a business suit, sitting on a huge yacht with a suitcase of money and a big fat smile on their face. Generally speaking, this false idea of success that we have created in our society is one that involves money, power, fame… and little else.
For some reason it seems we tend to measure the attainment of success as only being the accumulation of material things. We often associate success with greed, competition, and even aggressiveness. But these traits have very little in common with success, and are certainly not necessary qualities to have in order to obtain it.
The truth of the matter is that, although we separate them, success and fulfilment are one in the same.
In order to be truly successful we must find a balance in our lives which includes all aspects of the human experience: Financial, spiritual, emotional and relational. If you were to have huge ‘success’ in one of those areas, but in doing so rejected or neglected another, then you have not achieved success. For example: If you have all of the money in the world but no thriving relationships, you will most certainly be miserable.
What then, is the correct way to measure our success?
A simple way you can keep yourself on track for fulfilment within your success is to continually ask yourself whether or not you are functioning within your highest values. If we reject such critical self analysis, we create internal conflict because we aren’t being honest with ourselves. Knowing your values is critical to true success and fulfilment. Your values may be things like travel, spending time with family and being healthy, the point is to know them intimately.
So, what do you value?
Being successful means being focused on attaining mastery in all aspects of your life. This means including the fulfilment that you gain from your partner, children, family, friends or community, into your measurement of success.It also means seeking to help create success in the lives of those around you. To be successful means being an active participant in the creation of your life and destiny, seeking out abundance in all forms.
The many paths that lead to true success all include fulfilment. So unless you are aligned with your values, success will continue to slip through your fingers.