Success is something every business owner strives for and yet, I run across so many business leaders who are dissatisfied with their success in some way. It’s not surprising as following other’s definition of success is a common occurrence. I myself have done it and I bet you can relate as well.
It takes a crisis for me to figure out I’m not satisfied, yet it sparks a life-long realization for which I am so grateful. I discover the tendency to follow someone else’s definition of success is due to not knowing, liking, and trusting yourself.
I find out how little I know, like and trust myself when my son’s born with significant health issues. I’ve spent all of my time building a successful career based on someone else’s definition of success, I’ve lost myself. I spend the first two years of my son’s life running from doctor, therapist and advocate, and don’t tap into my mother’s intuition to identify what I want to do and what my terms are for helping my son.
It takes a shocking conversation to wake me up. When the doctors tell me my son won’t throw and catch a ball, walk up the stairs naturally or have a normal social life, I suddenly come back into focus. As I’m internally responding, “Absolutely not, not on my watch,” I remember who I am at the core – I’m a strategist and wildly intuitive.
It takes this crisis to knock sense into me about going inward to look for answers. I know myself enough to tap into my intuition to defy the doctor’s predictions. I like myself enough to determine what satisfies me when it comes to my son’s quality of life. As I’m not going accept the doctor’s plan to merely work around my son’s issues, I marry ancient wisdom with western methods to get the best results. Finally, I trust myself enough to see my strategies through for 8 years until I see complete transformation.
Knowing, liking, and trusting yourself are the keys to satisfying success. When you know yourself, you easily make decisions, become more certain and stop giving into distractions and stressful situations. When you like yourself, you have positive collaborative relationships, not competitive ones filled with power plays. When you trust yourself, you feel abundant, successful and loved, not lacking, frustrated, and disconnected.
Satisfaction and success don’t have to be competing priorities. You can and should have both. My best advice: go inward to determine your definition of satisfying success and then trust yourself enough to make it real in your life.
