Write Your Own Success Story

Success is an ever-present concept, especially if you’re serious about leadership. We all want to feel successful and to be seen as successful by our peers, and there’s certainly no shortage of advice on how to get there. Just run a quick Google search and you’re likely to get more results than you can imagine…

Three Habits of Successful Leaders

Morning Routines of the Most Successful People

Tips to Make Your Day More Successful

Here’s my issue with this approach – it assumes we all think about success in the same way. That the same things will make all of us feel successful. That the same steps create success for everyone.

Write Your Own Success Story

It seems to me the reality is far different. As I talk to my clients and other leaders, they each have different ideas of what it means to be a success. For some, it’s being wholly invested in their business or career. Some want to fulfill a passion through their work and seek to integrate their interests seamlessly into their lives. Others want to find challenging work that rewards them well financially. Though they are all different, these concepts of success are each valid and meaningful.

The danger in following the popular notion that success means the same thing to everyone is that you may well end up chasing someone else’s dream. We see it all the time. The professional who’s spent years building a career, only to realize what they really wanted to do was something different all along. The business owner who sacrifices what really matters most to chase growth at all costs. Eventually, these people end up burned out and disillusioned because chasing someone else’s dream is draining.

You spin your wheels and never get the sense of satisfaction that you’re looking for. You feel like you don’t have the time to do the things that really matter to you. Do it for too long and you can end up feeling like a failure, despite all your apparent achievements. Ultimately, people in this situation throw up their hands and say to themselves, “There has to be a better way.”

Designing your own notion of success, however, is not for the faint of heart. It requires knowing yourself inside and out. What makes you feel energized and satisfied and what are your deepest values and desires? What would a life well-lived look like to you? Each of these questions must be answered from your own heart, free from the influence of your family, your friends, and the ubiquitous “they” who cloud our best judgment.

If you’ve already answered these questions for yourself, great! But, the journey is far from over. Even when you are on the path toward your own success, you aren’t insulated from fear, self-doubt, and discouragement. It takes real commitment and confidence to keep muddling forward in the face of these challenges, to say nothing of all the critics and naysayers that will stand in your way, but the rewards are there for those who overcome.

Wherever you are in your career, it’s never too late to ask whose dream you are chasing. If the answer is anyone’s other than your own, it’s never too late to correct your course in some meaningful way. After all, it’s your story to write.

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