Successful?

I have had recent conversations with several clients that have circled their way around not being able to find Moneysuccess. We explored all the different definitions that we hold for success. You can imagine the topics ranged from income, to skill, to effectiveness, to education and so on. What always seems to stop everyone in their thought process is what is shared in the following quote: “The plain fact is that the planet does not need more “successful people”. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and human, and these qualities have little to do with success as our culture has defined it.” ~David Orr

What if you never meet the definition of what you think successful is? What if society never sees you as a success? And so we then begin to explore a new way of viewing what we would or could consider successful. First I challenge you to find a new word. Words that have presented themselves are thriving, fruitful, positive, fertile, abundant, rewarding, flourishing, booming, blooming, or blossoming! How fun are these options? How much different energies they hold? Think about it…thrive means to grow well! Flourishing….means to be healthy and whole! Rewarding…means satisfying! These simple words change EVERYTHING about what you originally believed about success. I would rather be any one of these words any day!

file0002143847291Suddenly you feel a shift in the possibilities and choices that you can make. Amazingly the things you were focusing on that felt like blocks or failures have lost some of their weight. Let’s think about our selves with different labels of what makes us unique and thriving. We often fail to recognize the value of the restorer, the peacemaker or the healer within our society. Yet without them our lives would be broken, chaotic, and unwell. Our society needs the courage of those of us who are ready to be everything we are meant to be; alive and vibrant, beautiful and giving, compassionate and healing, calming and wondrous and if it turns out that someone sees that as successful…well so be it! Celebrate the qualities that set you apart, honor the gifts that others cherish about you, utilize the strengths that empower others and love who you are fully.

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2013 Lisa Meade