Success Is…
A lot is written about success. A key factor is being clear on what “success” means to you. I have always loved the definition that “success is the pursuit of a worthwhile goal.” Pursuing anything worthwhile initially requires additional effort. You can set yourself up for success—it requires being intentional. One of the best pieces of advice I received was to do an audit of my environment. This included reviewing who and what I watched, read, and listened to, and who and what I chose to surround myself with. The advice was to ensure you intentionally surround yourself with people you want to be like. It goes much further than that, of course. Your surroundings and your systems will have a substantial impact on who you are and how you behave. You are a product of your environment.
How intentional are you about what you surround yourself with and the habits you have, from the food in the cupboard to what you consume in the media?
It is often easier said than done. Have you ever changed and been intentional, only to slip back into the comfortable groove that is your everyday life? If you are in the same place, following the same actions and habits, and surrounded by the same people, it is almost impossible to change. Your environment needs to encourage healthy growth, not the growth of habits that stunt your desires to excel.
There is an oft-quoted observation that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. This has a lot of truth behind it. I encourage you to look beyond just the people you are surrounded with, to the systems, spaces, habits, and environments. All these impact you, and small, deliberate changes here can compound. Paper on my desk used to plague me. I would make notes on random pieces of paper during a call or Zoom meeting and then not want to throw them out or file them, intending to extract the information later. This habit led to a very messy desk and disorganized information system. I was the classic cartoon character with a messy desk, throwing bits of paper around in confidence that I knew exactly where something was. I was lying to myself. The odd time I did find the right information in time was given disproportionate weight in my memory recall. In my more honest moments, I marveled at the ability of paper to seemingly breed more paper on my desk. After many half-hearted attempts to change, I took the radical action of clearing my desk and space of all paper.
When you review your current situation, pay particular attention to the people you look up to and the spaces where you work and relax. Ask yourself if they are conducive to optimal living and performance. People and places can energize or drain you.
Here’s a simple check-in question: At the end of a day, are you more filled or drained on average? If most of your days end with you watching the minutes crawl toward knock-off time and feeling exhausted, it is a warning of a slow death. You see it when people do jobs they hate, go to places they dread, and are surrounded by people they would rather avoid. All this sucks the lifeblood out of you. The opposite is also true. If you get lost in your work, enjoy what you do, and find it fulfilling, challenging, and rewarding, it will energize you, filling up your tank and making it far more likely that you will create a life aligned with your goals.
