This is How I Measure Success
Every morning after I exercise, I meditate and speak positive affirmations to myself before starting my day. It is a great habit to get into, as our thoughts create our realities! The affirmation above is my favorite, because it sums up how I think a well-balanced and successful life should be lived. I usually add ‘serving others’ as an additional category and change the ‘I’m going to win’ (in the future) to ‘I AM WINNING’ (in the present) as well. I want to be winning NOW, not in the future. If you are thriving in ALL nine of these categories, you are winning at life! As our collective society’s consciousness moves toward a more holistic approach to overall wellness it is imperative that we unlearn the traditional financial only view of success. I often laugh to myself when someone remarks that a person is successful and is referring to the amount of money they make or the material possessions they have. While it is nice to have those things far too many of us prioritize financial success ahead of everything else that is important in our lives. How is that ‘successful’ person’s marriage or intimate relationship? I have seen time and again that the ‘successful’ individual is often divorced or in a bad relationship. What about their family life? I have seen often that these ‘successful’ individuals are not spending quality time with their families and children, leaving them to grow up with nannies and trying to compensate for not being there with material gifts. Is that ‘successful’ person living with purpose in their business or profession? Many times, we see this ‘successful’ individual stuck in a career or business that they hate, doing it for the money alone. Do these ‘successful’ people give back to their community? Sometimes. What about their health? How many ‘successful’ people have you seen that have sacrificed their own bodies with long hours, a poor diet, and no exercise? When we slow down and allow ourselves time to ‘be’ instead of always ‘doing’ we realize that true success in life comes from abundance in all these categories. When one or two of the success categories take up too much time and energy in our lives, the others suffer. It usually takes some sort of life event (this could be health related like a heart attack or stroke, a job loss, a family or friend dying, or an accident) for us to wake up and realize that our success categories are out of whack and need to be re-adjusted. I highly recommend keeping a journal and reflecting on these life success categories on a regular basis (I measure myself from 1–10, and jot down notes of how I can improve the category if it is not scored high). By reflecting on our lives and living in a more conscious and intentional manner we can see, feel, and live true success.
