 Have you ever thought about success as a daily experience...a premeditated planned experience that meets all the criteria you've identified as necessary for you to be successful... actually being able to declare daily that you are successful... is this even possible?
I believe it is possible, and not only do I believe it's possible for me, I believe each and every one of us can experience such days regardless of gender, race, education, financial status, health, age and/or any other limiting factor believed to be preventing a person from being successful.
So how is success experienced daily? First what needs to occur is the clarification of what success means to you. As you begin thinking of your true definition of success, consider...Is it about power, control, immediate gratification, winning and recognition, or is it about influence, impact, delayed gratification and making a difference.
Either definition will work, but the second meaning is more sustainable and much easier to achieve on a daily basis. Also, the second meaning is focused around relationships, people and your most desired feelings, while the first definition focuses more on materialism, scarcity and fear. And interestingly, when the second definition is the focus while the first is paid attention to, they both are achievable. In reverse, it just doesn't work.
Now that you've determined what success means to you, decide to begin and end each day the same way, that is to focus on and clarify your intentions and desires for that particular day. As you focus on intentions, think about how you want to contribute to certain relationships with others as well as to yourself. Examples could be valuing another person, with a compliment or promoting another person's potential with support and encouragement. Next as you focus on yourself, you may decide to complete a special project or to simply treat yourself to something that you enjoy. Notice that when you move from a to-do list perspective to the mindset that it is an opportunity to create anew and grow relationships, your energy level picks up and you begin accomplishing more with less effort.
As you focus on desires, you will want to identify the feelings that you want to experience. These are important as all your feelings come from within and when you are focused, they tend to surface more readily than if you leave them to chance. As the old saying goes, if you want to be happy, BE happy.
Once you begin to think about your intentions and desires, it is critically important that you write them down. This will force you to be clear and adds to your commitment to accomplish and experience them.
On to daily rituals.. Think of it in two parts. First, begin each day creating and clarifying your intentions and desires. Decide to revisit and process your meaning of success, writing it out to reinforce your commitment and understanding. It may be helpful to start a journal of sorts, a daily living companion as I call it. This will help guide you towards becoming more centered and experiencing your day with a new intentional energy.
The second part is to end your day by revisiting the intentions and desires you created. Now this is important. Regardless of what was completed or not completed, accept your day with gratitude and learn more about your daily choices relative to what success means to you. This will contribute to a more relaxed evening and prep you for the next day.
That's it. Succeeding daily is nothing more and nothing less than living intentionally with clarity of purpose and impact. As you follow through with this new beginning and continue living success daily, your life will take on new meaning, your important relationships will grow and you will feel better about yourself and the world in which you live.
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This article is part of the ongoing SURVE Series on Transformational Transition - T2 - Learning, Living, Leading.
Transformation: to transform one's self, and/or an entire organization is to become more of who you are becoming by simply relating and responding to life in ways that are healthy, accepting, forgiving, and wise... |
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James H. Blackburn is a Senior Consultant and Principal for The SURVE Consulting Group. Jim is a Writer, Speaker, Learning Facilitator and Counselor with over 15 years of experience counseling Organizational Leaders through the challenges of Transformational Transition.
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ABOUT SURVE
SURVE is a transformational change agent providing uniquely different, unparalleled counsel to business owners, executives, leaders and managers.
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