Happiness 9. What do you mean by success?
by Una Hearne.
‘They have it all’
What exactly do we mean by this? What constitutes ‘it all’? They have the money? Lifestyle? Family? Friends? Such nonsense. No one can have it all. It is not possible for one person to own everything in the world. Or to have all the relationships in the world. It is not possible for one person to have every career or adventure that it is now possible to have. No one is superwoman/superman. (They are cartoons not role models) (Also the outfit wouldn’t work for everyone).
So please give over with the comparing your life to other peoples’. It is meaningless.
Instead, how about this? How about you decide what a successful life looks like for you personally? The feeling of being happy, fulfilled and successful comes from within you. You know what makes you feel these things. Isn’t that more useful than knowing what others have and do? I have coached many people who spent decades chasing what other people had, or what their parents wanted for them. They have achieved ‘it all’ and yet feel empty and lost. They come to me to figure out the truth of what they really want for themselves.
My mission is to empower people to live lives of personal integrity. So here are some questions I invite you to explore:
- Who are the people who matter most to you?
- What really matters to you in life? Love? Work? Adventure? Creativity? Connection? Health?
- What do you love to do?
- What will make you feel proud of the way you have lived?
- What makes you feel deeply, happy, fulfilled and successful?
- What do you want your life to be about?
- What kind of person do you want to be?
- What makes you feel truly alive?
These are just random questions I thought of, by no means a full list. Feel free to come up with your own questions or use any of the thousands of others in personal development book, courses and online.
Life takes a good deal of living in my experience and everyone gets to deal with difficulties and limits. If you are going to put all that effort in – shouldn’t it be to a life that YOU consider worthwhile?
Pic credit: Congerdesign. Found on pixabay
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