“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.”
Vincent T. Lombardi
What does being successful mean to you?
Do you wonder what it will mean to you when your children are adults?
Is it the number of friends you have?
How much money is in the bank account?
Celebrating Anniversaries year after year?
Being able to do what you love every single day?
I hadn’t much pondered it until a few years ago.
Though I would lie if I say I can’t imagine doing something else – because I love what I do!
But I’ve had successes all my life, but I didn’t always see them that way because I had an internal dialogue that kept me from seeing all that I had achieved over the years.
I also had measured my success by measuring my grades, counting the number of friends I had and that I managed to follow and obey the rules.
But as I started to heal the wounds of my past, changing the conversations in my head, counting the money in the bank and doing more of what I love, I noticed that I already had been successful in many ways.
- I raised my kids doing the best I could at any given moment despite the fact I didn’t have role models in foster care to teach me how to be a good parent.
- Even though I struggled with alcohol in the past, I didn’t become an addict like my father nor do I drink to numb my pain
- Even though I failed in relationships and my marriage, I didn’t give up on finding a partner that supports me and even puts up with my shenanigans
- Realizing that statistically I shouldn’t have earned 2 degrees but I managed to do it anyway despite the odds against me
- Chose to face my internal pain from past trauma and decided to heal the shit out of it
Being successful can sometimes mean just making it out of bed or being able to cook dinner for the family. At other times it means that I supported my clients well and reached another goal.
All this rambling about success through means that we really should be looking at the details of our lives more closely and rather than seeing failures all the time.
Success means something different for everyone. Yes, for some it’s the amount of money in the bank for others its how well we live each day.
What does being successful mean to you?
