What does success LOOK like to you? What does success FEEL like to you?
The other day I very randomly crossed paths with an old family friend that I hadn’t seen in over 25 years. We (mainly him) exchanged a very quick and condensed recap of that huge chunk of time and where and what his children (similar ages to me and my siblings) were up to and had achieved. It was great to see him after all that time, although it got me thinking about how society values success. I truly believe this ‘keeping up with the Jones’s’ expectation we can feel from family, society AND ourselves is one of the greatest issues of our western world. And I truly believe it is causing a lot of stress, anxiety, overwhelm and paralysing fear. To have more, need more, want more, see more, eat more, make more etc. etc. The house, the car, the wife/husband, the kids, the job/career, the holidays, the juggling everything while smiling. What if we were viewed for the type of person we are, how we use our time to just BE, how kind we are to others - people and animals, how helpful and caring we are, how happy we are regardless of our finances, our relationship status and the material things we’ve collected, how little our footprint is on mama earth, how calm, relaxed and at peace we are, how genuine we are, how focused yet gentle we are with ourselves while positively navigating and growing on our journey. I sometimes laugh at myself when I forget to stay focused on MY version of success. To continue to create, live - and sustain! a life *I* love while living by my values.
Mx