8 Tips for Meaningful Success

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Achievement isn’t the Secret to Success.

So What Is?

A colleague and I interviewed people randomly to hear what they had to say about success – it might pleasantly surprise you – it did us. I was astounded by their sheer honesty, authenticity, and courage to express what success means.

We weren’t convinced that the current definition of success, heavily influenced by cultural pressures, supported us on our path as much as it hindered our ability to flourish. With this in mind, we wanted to hear what people in our community had to say:

What is student success? What is business, entrepreneurial success? What does it mean or better yet what does it feel like to be successful in your career and life?

What if love nourished it and not fear? What if you welcomed failure? What scares you most about failure? What do you want to be remembered for?

What we found was nuggets of wisdom, through shared sentiments and telling tips for success that might help you to move forward in mindful, positive ways as you begin to define what it means to you. What your success looks and feels like is different from the next person. But what we discovered were shared themes that may help in opening a different language for success, to thrive.

We’d like to introduce the beginning of a new conversation on how we change the language and redefine success in business, education, career, and life that supports a collective understanding, born of truth and wisdom, not wrought with fear.

Meaningful Success:

  1. Meaningful success isn’t about achievement as much as it is about being remembered. Remembered for “Who I am” and “How I’ve shown up” in my community and the world.
  2. You define it in ways that support you and your goals and find people that will nourish you. You can lean in on your family, friends and perhaps, even the people you don’t know, but are willing to help because you have an armoring of faith.
  3. By identifying and moving through your fears, you can realize success. You don’t have to be plagued by it.
  4. Failure is scary, but it gets you closer to your ‘True North’ providing you with the hints and clues necessary to get back up again with strength, resilience and grace. What scares us most is being alone, homelessness, not being good enough, not having the strength to get back up again. You see, the thing is you’re never alone, believe someone always has ‘your back.’
  5. Having an impact on others lives, doing what you love and helping people are essential ingredients, even if this means, not getting paid what you might expect or what you’ve been sold. Our compassionate nature, innate to being human, fuel success – we’re happy and flourishing when we are helping others. Purpose and happiness trump money. Not downplaying the importance of money, but, “how do I do good with money and give back”.
  6. Pressure to be successful is real and can have an impact on your ability to flourish and to be happy. Redefining it in compassionate ways that recognize ‘your story in it’ is empowering.
  7. We’re hard on ourselves. Gentle reminders serve not to judge or critique in a manner that are harmful, but remember self-compassion. How can you best support yourself to achieve your dreams or what matters most to you so that you can work on your highest priorities – we’re all here to do something? Make it great, make it beautiful, as you define, with a little or a lot of help from your friends.
  8. What if you started reflecting on the last ten minutes of your life – what might you do with the time that has bestowed upon you?

It was an honor to witness candid conversations, like this that remind us of our humanness. I’m happy we followed the threads and grateful for all who participated in their willingness in making this world a much brighter place.

Here’s a peek inside the conversations, we hope you enjoy it.

Let’s continue the dialogue across Canada and around the world. Please join us here @paulapyne #ottsuccess

Photosource: icpublishing.ca

 

 

 

 

 

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