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Hally’s Hints

What is Success – to You?

What is the definition of success? Is it completing a degree? Is it having your parents say they are proud of you? Or perhaps it is making your first million dollars? In the scheme of things does it matter what success is? Or do we put so much into the end result that what gets us there doesn’t even matter.

When you think about being successful what comes to mind? Is it the white picket fence, 2.3 children and a happily ever partner? Perhaps it is hitting the glass ceiling of the corporate world with the six figure salary? When is what we have achieved deemed successful?

We get so caught up on how we look in everything we do. How good our resume looks. How good we look to our friends and the opposite (or same) sex that who we are and who we need to be to achieve happiness is an after thought. When I have done this or that then I will focus on being happy. And in some cases it isn’t even about being happy. It is about how good we look in a pair of shoes, the colour of our hair and perhaps how much weight we have or don’t have. Success becomes measured by material items rather than the person doing the hard work.

When did being ourselves stop being at the top of our list in what we want to achieve? We watch movies upon movies of what we would like to be like or perhaps what we believe our lives are missing and yet don’t do a single thing to create change, to create any of what we desire to be part of our day to day. Is it too hard? Is it too unfamiliar? It is probably too unreal to believe that what we see on a ten foot screen could actually happen to us.

Most of us aren’t rich or famous. Most of us were brought up with the basics of what is right and wrong. We are all so different but in essence we are all the same. We laugh; we cry; we eat and at some point we will die. And the whole time we are so busy being envious and jealous, judging  we don’t take the time to stop for one moment to look in the mirror. Not to do our hair or make up, but rather to look at ourselves as we are without the make up, without the facade of the roles we play and front we wear every single day to protect us – from ourselves.

We are always told not to trust anyone. That we should look after number one, being ourselves and yet though there is some truth in this we find ourselves so busy in getting everyone else’s approval and usually from those that haven’t even taken the time to say more than two words to us. For some ridiculous reason we believe the opinion of a stranger is more important than our own.

It is as though putting trust and faith in a complete stranger validates our necessity of connecting with someone outside of ourselves that may know some truth that we haven’t yet been confronted with.

So, what moves us forward? What is the secret to our own success?

Perhaps success for some is when we stop worrying about everyone else and ask ourselves the question. When we start to look within for the answer rather than requiring the constant acknowledgment that we are worthy; that we are perfect right now. That success isn’t about having a lot of money, about the world knowing who you are going out with but rather being happy to be you.

Perhaps this is when we have reached success – the success in being true to ourselves and having the courage to live as ourselves. We can run, we can hide but you will always be present for everything that happens.

Imagine how empowering your achievements would be if you were present in achieving your success, whatever that may be for you. That instead of dimming the light you turned it on to see yourself for all of your beauty.

The next time you are envious of somebody else and projecting what you don’t have, have a look within and see how amazing you are for all the things, no matter how big or small, you have achieved and the courage it took to get you to where you are today. The only person that can tell you if you are successful is you.

You owe it to yourself to celebrate the amazing success it is to be you!