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The Meaning of Success

Posted on: April 17, 2007

By Alyson Carson

70% of North Americans tend to have a type A personality, according to Eli Bay of Relaxation Response Institute. Type A personalities are aggressive, hostile, driven by a false sense of urgency, and they can’t ever take a break. Their ultimate goal is to please their boss, according to Brian Tracy. The majority of people with type a behaviors are men, but more and more women are starting to exhibit these behaviors. The result: the meaning of success is skewed. To the type A, success is having the approval of your boss—which takes moving up the corporate ladder to know if you’re succeeding. The only way to gauge if your boss approves of you is your promotions and pay checks. To the type A, work is everything. Well, let me tell you: work is not everything. With this attitude, you can never be satisfied, because there are always more rungs to climb. Bottom line, if you gauge your success by your paycheck and your status at work, you will never feel successful.

This is where the real meaning of success comes in. Success is a feeling—nothing less, nothing more. That means that to each person success will be slightly different. Each situation is different; each person has different needs and desires—it only makes sense to say that success is something different for every person. If you accomplish what you want to accomplish in life, then you have been successful. If you want to have a fishing boat on the Atlantic and you have it, you are successful. If you have a family and want to make sure you spend quality time with them, and you do, you are successful. You may not have millions of dollars, but you feel great. When everything is in balance and you feel like you spend enough time on the things you want to spend time, you are successful. When you doubt if you are doing the right thing—when you know something is missing in your life—you are not successful. It all depends on what you want and your responsibilities.

Success feels good. When you have that feeling you know you are doing things right; you have self-confidence; you like yourself and others; basically, you don’t ignore anything important in your life, and you ultimately feel successful. The problem with many people’s definition of success is that it leaves something wanting. It only incorporates part of the person. It’s like those people who only exercise one side of their body and ignore the other side. That seems pretty silly, right? It makes both arms useless, because they cannot work together anymore. It makes a lop-sided person. But, if you exercise both sides of your body it creates balance. Both sides can work together in harmony. This makes your body more valuable.

Take a look at your life and ask yourself (You must be brutally honest) where you need to build a little muscle. Are you financially strong? Are you physically healthy? Are you mentally and emotionally stable? Are you spiritually strong? Where are your gaps? If you feel guilty about not spending enough time with your family, that’s an indication that something is lacking. If you listen to your inner voice, it will tell you what you need to change. The problem is probably not that you don’t know what to change, but the problem is that you haven’t changed yet. Be true to yourself; honor your thoughts and feelings. The result will be feeling good about where you are and what you spend your time doing. Make holistic success your goal. Make it your goal to feel good all the time.

Alyson Carson is a small business coach who specializes in helping small business owners attain holistic wealth. She helps them thrive physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually as they obtain their monetary wealth. She can be reached at alyson@life-balance-institute.com. Her website is “www.life-balance-institute.com”:http://www.life-balance-institute.com.

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