Over a wine last night with a dear friend of mine we started talking about my business tagline, progress towards success, and what that meant to both of us. I was surprised by her reaction to the word success, how she defined it, and how it seemed to daunt her.
For me, success means achieving things in your life that make you feel complete and fulfilled. Those things that make you sit taller, stand prouder and feel as though you’ve accomplished something worthwhile. It can be a big thing or a small thing, but the things that give you that feeling of warmth and achievement inside to me are those moments of success. And I believe we should be celebrating these as much as possible.
My success is driven by contribution to others, and although it differs slightly in how it shows-up within my personal and professional life, this is still the driving force behind me feeling fulfilled.
I have a personal sense of success when I am happy and surrounded by people I love who love me back. When I am contributing to those individual relationships and adding value to that person in some way, shape or form – then I feel that I am personally being successful.
My sense of success in a professional capacity comes from helping others uncover more about themselves and developing them further so that they can achieve their goals.
From assisting someone to understand their strengths and how this links to their career path, to coaching a leader around self-awareness so that they can communicate with their teams better, to facilitating workshops to increase knowledge and skill – the list is endless and constantly growing.
Whatever your version of success looks like, my belief is that as long as you work towards this each and every day you progress towards success. If today you’ve moved the dial forward, then you’re progressing. If the dial didn’t move (or perhaps didn’t move in the direction you were hoping) was there a lesson or a take away for you as to why? If so, then again to me that is a progression, you have knowledge today that you didn’t have yesterday that is helping you on your path to achieving your goal.
What does your version of success look like, and how are you at this very moment progressing towards it? What did you celebrate today, or learn from, that is moving you towards your success and allowing you to stop standing still? Share your thoughts and comments, I’d love to hear them!
