I’ve decided to write a series of blog posts called Life as i know it. I can’t promise they’ll be appearing regularly, but when I’m thinking about something and want to share my ramblings – it’ll be popping up here! This week, it’s this idea of Success and why i think we’re all probably a whole lot more successful than we realise……..
A couple of weeks ago I got together with a dear friend of mine over a long overdue cuppa. We were both feeling a bit overworked and under appreciated, and struggling with juggling life and work, and for her the needs and never ending demands of two beautiful small children too.
As we talked we realised that we’d mentioned ‘success’ (and how we felt we weren’t achieving it) on more than a couple of occasions and it got me thinking about how we measure success in our lives, and what does being ‘successful’ really mean anyway?
Social Media is constantly reminding us of what we ‘should’ be doing, and gives us endless opportunities to judge how we measure up against others and its exhausting. How easy it is to compare ourselves to everyone else and fall short Every. Single. Time. There will always be someone doing more than us, someone who seems to have it all ‘together’ when we feel like we’re falling apart and there will always be someone who appears to be achieving all the goals that we set out for our own life but haven’t quite managed yet – and making it look so darn easy.
It’s hard to feel successful when we are always being told to expect more, to be more, to do more and to want and need more. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for ambition and drive, but by hinging success on so many outside influences and constantly feeling like we’re trying to catch up and then keep up, we run the risk of losing sight of who we really are, and what’s in our hearts that really makes us tick and lights us up.
From where I’m standing our goal in life isn’t to be successful in the traditional sense of the world, it isn’t measured by money earned of the things we own. Our goal is to be valuable, to live a life with intention, and love, and kindness.
Our success is measured by the things that run through our heads when we’re lying in bed at the end of the day. By the friendly smiles, and encouragement shared. The unnecessary but entirely worth it gestures of kindness both from us and to us by others. For me, amongst other things, i count it in the emails I receive from people explaining the reasons behind the biscuits they are sending and the knowledge that they will lift someone’s spirits a little, and in the gift notes I write alongside each package where the sender tells the receiver how loved and thought of they are.
Success is about following your heart, finding what makes it sing and doing it. It doesn’t matter what others are doing, it matters what YOU are doing.
Love,
Caroline
