What Does Success Look Like?

This is the one thought-provoking sentence that keeps working itself over and over in my brain at the moment because those five words may actually hold the key to how I want to live my life.

People want to be successful. They strive for success, work long hours, sacrifice, and if they hit their most desired goal they may still feel empty. So they set bigger goals and when they hit them they feel exactly the same.

We have to ask ourselves why? Why are lotto winners wasting the realisation of their ultimate dream? Travellers pining for home? Big business owners crying into their beers?

Because to have a successful life you must enjoy living it.

Simple.

You must enjoy living your life to feel successful.

That means its more than just the realisation of a goal. It’s more than just money. It’s more than just getting a massive business deal or finishing that novel or getting to Macha Picchu.

To live a successful life, every night when you’re head hits the pillow, you must be satisfied with all you have done, with what you have experienced, with the person you have been.

Working eighty hour weeks to “be successful” sounds miserable if the reason you want to be successful is so you can travel, pay off the mortgage, kick back and play the guitar. Right? What if you never get there or what if the habit of working that eighty hour week makes you feel like you should be doing something – even when your ultimate goal was to chill out?

So I have been trying to set myself little milestones for my day:

• Writing a little
• Really enjoying my coffee
• Reading
• Kissing my boys and spending time with them
• Giggling with my husband
• Meditation and spending alone time
• Being in nature
• An early night with lots of promised sleep
• Yoga
• Healthy food which nourishes me – smoothies, salads, seafood, green juice
• Being present
• Slowing down
• Reducing clutter in my house
• Laughter
• Silliness
• A herbal tea before bed

Its the little things you do every day that give you the feeling of satisfaction, of really being truly happy. Of course there are days when things go wrong, or you don’t tick anything off your list but if in general, you are doing the things that make you happy every day you can count yourself a success.

A fabulous exercise to truly work out what you want out of life is to look at your perfect day.

How do you wake up?
What does your bed/house look like? How do you feel? What do you do first? What do you wear? What are you eating? How are you relating to the people in your life? What are you doing? What is your job? Are you rushing, meandering, wandering, smiling? Where do you end up? Who are you with?  Are you going to sleep with a smile on your face?

We tend to wander through life thinking we know what we want but if we truly stop and examine it you might end up surprising the hell out of yourself.

You have one life. Don’t use it to please other people. It won’t serve you in the end.

Do what makes you happy and the whole world will smile with you.