How to make the journey towards reaching your goals a blissful One
In this blog post, I want to move from the topic of what you desire to how to get what you desire. John Lennon famously wrote the lyric, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." This poignantly speaks to the reality that the majority of our lives consists of the 99% of experiences that happen between the big achievements we work toward.
In other words, reaching a long-desired goal is a wonderful, but fleeting experience. The space between the peak moments is the true, but underrated, creative grounds for nurturing the happiness and fulfilment we desire.
SUCCESS IS RARELY JUST ABOUT WHAT WE ACHIEVE. IT’S ALSO THE WAY WE CHOOSE TO GET THERE. After reflecting back over my own definition of success, I realised I had outgrown it. The beliefs and values most important to me have recently evolved from those I initially grew my life and career upon. Until not so long ago, I used to define success by the following elements:
These ambitious goals became part of my identity for many years. While I’m proud of myself for having achieved all of them, a crucial missing element of consciousness only became apparent in hindsight.
How I thought success should be achieved.
The way we define success, whether consciously or subconsciously, is rarely exclusively related to what we do, but often includes the way in which we get there.
For example, we may believe that the only way to be seen as a successful or worthwhile leader is to maintain 80-hour work weeks. Or we may tell ourselves that, to have the ‘perfect’ romance, the other person must chase us or make the first move. Or that anything that comes easy to us isn’t really valuable.
I was long carrying the belief that being a successful career woman meant undivided attention and unquestionable dedication to my work at the expense of a social, family and romantic life.
And guess what? I made sure life unfolded for me in exactly that way… even when it wasn’t necessary. Why? Because this process was attached to a deep-rooted belief about what success has to look and feel like.
TO TRULY EMBODY A NEW DEFINITION OF SUCCESS, YOU MUST ALSO ADDRESS THE PROCESS.
Today, my definition of success is quite different and related to the following:
If I were to strive towards these goals/values with the same process - one rooted in self-sacrifice, fight, external validation and always choosing the challenging over the calm path - I wouldn’t get to the core of what I really want to embody. There would be no discernment, little integrity, and zero focus of my energy towards the experiences, people and projects that truly align with my values.
Now let me show you how you can accomplish this:
How do you wish to spend your life?
Look back over to your own personal definition of success that you explored in my previous blog post Are you unknowingly chasing someone else’s dreams?
In order to come up with new concepts that make you feel amazing and fit what you need presently, take some time to answer the following questions:
