Twisted Notion of Success

We have become so good at overcomplicating things.  We overthink and over react wearing ourselves out. We keep piling more on without thinking about what we are doing to ourselves.  The last couple of years have taught me many things, but one of the most important is to work on making life more simple.  Having been forced to slow down showed me how much my priorities were not what they should be.  

I had a bit of a twisted notion of success that I think many share with me.  I thought if I worked harder and spent more time working, I was building a legacy and teaching my kids they can achieve anything they want.  I was trying to balance multiple careers, being a wife and a mom and was exhausting myself.  I felt that I was never doing enough, was never going to be enough, but I didn't know quite how to get off the rollercoaster.  I knew I was losing myself.  I knew I was running myself into the ground.  I referred to myself as a workaholic, but would laugh about it.  If I wanted to be successful, there was no other way, right?

I was so far from wrong that I may as well have been in a different universe.  I was using a false definition of success that has become the normal way of looking at it. I was defining success as having a thriving business and being a coach and being a realtor and being a personal trainer.  Yep, all that.  I learned that success is what we want success to be.  It doesn't have to be the traditional kind of success that people lose themselves for.  

Success is something we can design into our lives.  We can make our own rules.  We can leave the rat race any time we want to.  Now I caution you.  Leaving the rat race is not easy.  Deciding to live by a different set of rules and forge a new path means it is probably going to become difficult in other ways for a bit.  I had to walk away from a guaranteed income into the unknown when I left my business.  Yes, real estate can be great money, but you never know how it is going to.  There are no guarantees.  And coaching, well coaching can be all over the place as well.  I know, I just admitted that I do still have multiple careers, but I am doing it my way this time.

What rules would you make if you were going to live by your own set of rules?  If you could create the life of your dreams, what would it look like?  Now that you are picturing it, what do you have to do to get that life?  I am done overcomplicating my life.  Are you ready to be done overcomplicating your life?  I have a ways to go to continue building this dream I have created in my mind.  Each day, I get closer.  

I deserve more than the life I was living.  My family deserves more than the life I was living.  I will continue to work towards the life we all deserve, living by our rules.  We will define success by our terms.  My challenge to you is to define success for yourself and those you love.