Yesterday evening, when putting my feet up with a mince pie in front of the telly, I found myself twin-screening: a habit I love and hate in equal measure. Sponsored LinkedIn posts always have a way of creeping into my Twitter feed any time of the day or night and last night was no exception when one tweet in particular featuring an article from Dr. Travis Bradberry (@talentsmarteq) caught my eye:
Nine signs you’re successful even if it doesn’t feel like it
And it got me thinking: what does it mean to be successful?
Success is such a difficult word; it conjures up images of wealth, prosperity and gargantuan achievement and rolls them all into one big ball of happiness. It’s no wonder, therefore, that we are never satisfied with what we have and are never content with living in the here and now. We are, by our competitive nature, constantly striving towards reaching that bigger goal, that light at the end of the tunnel, that… success.
Fundamentally, success is not something that can be gauged universally. We do share broad standards and morals and there is a huge amount that we have in common with one another. However, we are all living our own separate lives guided by contrasting principles and opinions and it is this variety that adds to the spice of life.
Dr. Bradberry’s article takes a moral approach to success and encourages us to look inwards at our own attitudes and behaviours rather than outwards towards the achievements of those around us. Forget about the flash car and the fancy doorbell, perhaps all you need to be successful is the ability to ‘accept what you can’t change and change what you can.’ Once you sit down, take stock and look at the world around you, you might just realise that you are already more successful than you ever imagined.
What does ‘success’ mean to you? Comment below, I’d love to know.
Daniel Jenkins ACIM 