Success - What the heck is it (and how can I get it?)

Has anyone asked you lately, "Are you successful?"  

I don't get that question from others very often. But it's a question that replays all the time in the back of my mind.  It's usually a whisper, "I want to be successful" is what I hear myself saying.  But what does that really mean? 

Do I mean, steady clients, healthy income, happy family, good physical health, having loyal friends? Is it one thing or all of those things? When I began to look more closely, I realized that until I can really target what I understand as success, I can't really achieve it.

Make "Success" Concrete

Have you ever tried to walk through a room full of junk in the dark because the light was out or you were just too lazy to turn it on?  Or in too much of a hurry?  I do it all the time.  And although I usually get where I am going, it takes me more time.  If I am looking for something - that's a whole 'nother matter.

How can you find something if you don't turn the light on?  You might eventually find it, but most likely at some point you'll have to find some light. 

It's the same with "success".  How can you be successful if you don't focus on exactly what it is that you want? Is it to be influencial in your community or to have well adjusted children? But - what if it's all of the above?!  Do you have to chose one or can you have it all?

You can have it all

I'm a big believer that if you discover what it is that you want - the thing that you are passionate about - then "success" will follow, along with everything else. Call me an optimist, or a dreamer, but in the end I believe it is up to you.

It's all about what YOU think.

Or more importantly, what you THINK.

Our minds are very powerful.  They can help us or hold us back. But ultimately, we are the experts on US. We know what we really want, but often we get good at hiding those things from ourselves.  We are afraid we'll appear selfish or self-centered. (That's one story we tell ourselves.) The answers are in there (in YOU) never-the-less.

Go on a treasure hunt

Try this:  pull together images from magazines that make you smile, or objects that make you feel whole or happy. 

If you chose images, put them together in a collage. Then step back and take a look. What do you see?  Lots of people?  Lots of buildings?  Lots of animals? What kinds of colors are predominate? Those are clues from your subconscious. Pay attention.  Ask yourself what might these observations mean? Write it down, get those answers out on a piece of paper - make your thoughts concrete.

If you chose objects, do you notice a theme?  Are they from your childhood?  Are they sport or outdoor related? Again, clues from your subconscious - telling you that these are the things that give you power and energy.  What might happen if you got to work with them every day?! 

Do you see where I'm going?

Here is something else you might have heard before - the key to finding "success" is perhaps not in asking "how", or in asking "what" - but in even thinking about it at all. The whole process of making those hopes and desires actual might just be the ticket.

"Success doesn't come to you…you go to it." Marva Collins



In the end perhaps it really is - the journey and NOT the destination.