The Measure of Success

How do we measure the level of our success?

As an author, artist and entrepreneur it is easy to start measuring my success against the success of others in my field.  Is my success measured by how many books I have sold compared to other people, how many paintings I have sold and for how much?  How far I have climbed on the ladder in my network marketing company.  It is easy to think it is.  It is also easy to get down on yourself if you don’t meet some arbitrary standard.

But is that the true measure of success?

For the author, artist, musician what if success was measured by how you felt in the creation process and how it impacted you to become something different?  Would it matter if you only sold one book, one painting or one song if that piece of art changed someone’s life? Is that success?

For the entrepreneur does it matter how many widgets you sold and how much money you made, is that  the measure of success? Is success based on getting a certain title?  Or is success based on the fact that what you sold was experienced as positive and helpful to those who bought the widget, no matter how much you made in the process.  Success in this instance could be the fact that you transformed yourself in the process of selling those widgets.

What if success was solely measured by the fact that you had the guts to express yourself and let other people see it, or just in the fact that it changed you in some way?  Success never takes into account the circumstances out of which something was created and how much courage it took to make steps forward.  All of the steps should count as success, don’t you think?

Those are not the questions people ask when assessing if something was successful or not.

The meaning of success has gotten away from us, has gotten impersonal and is measured by standards that have nothing to do with success at all.  We lose sight of our accomplishments because they don’t live up to some high, unattainable standard that we and society set for them.

Maybe it is the word Success that is creating the problem.

suc·cess

səkˈses/

noun

1. the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

   “the president had some success in restoring confidence”

   synonyms:

   favorable outcome, successfulness, successful result, triumph; Hollywood ending “the success of the scheme”

   • the attainment of popularity or profit.

     “the success of his play”

     synonyms:

     prosperity, affluence, wealth, riches, opulence “the trappings of success”
   • a person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity.

     “I must make a success of my business”

     synonyms:

     triumph, bestseller, blockbuster, sellout; informal(smash) hit, megahit,winner

     No pressure there!  As you can see by the very definition “success” comes with a pressure to be, do or become something lofty.

     The successes that I accomplished this year an not exactly the ones I set out to achieve.  Sometimes our lofty plans are derailed and it is for our highest and best that they were, even if we can’t see the reason right away. According to my spiritual blueprint they were the ones I was meant to achieve.

     I have achieved some amazing things this year, some of them came out of the fact that my original plan got derailed early in the year.  I wrote a book and published it and that wouldn’t have happened if I had stuck with my plan. I went to Bali for a month to learn an new painting technique, I am working on a children’s book and achieve a level of success in my network marketing business but what is bigger in the scheme of things is I transformed myself.  I released old programs that were getting in my way of success, I learned completely new ways of looking at myself and my world, I spent quality time with myself, my kids and my grandson,  made many new friends and I got a new cat!  I have expressed myself and become more authentic.

     Did I complete with perfection the list I created at the beginning of the year, no!

     Does it matter? No!

     Was I successful? Yes!

     I am a success because I feel more complete, more serene, more grateful, more compassionate and more loving and accepting of myself.

     I think it is time we create a new definition for success. One that is kinder, gentler and realistic.

     I am curious, how do you define success?

Rewrite Your Story

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like this image because it reminds me that not only can I rewrite my story but I can also put it in a metaphoric bottle and send it off to the Universe to make it happen.  I can let go and let God.

On January 1st I wrote a blog called “One Magic Word” where I talked about creating a List of Accomplishments, as if those things had already occurred.  My list was lofty and I was dreaming big!  It is a powerful exercise I encourage you to do.  Little did I know that it would cause such a stir in me!

I have spent the six months since I wrote them unraveling old beliefs and reprogramming my mind so that I could align with those lofty goals.  Does the fact that I have yet to accomplish them mean it was a failure, or that I am a failure?  NO WAY!  I still have 6 months to accomplish them and the six months I have spent rewriting my story, will make it possible to do so.

We can not line up with our desires if we have a contrary story running in the background.  It is impossible!  Our words are powerful and the words running unconsciously in our head are just as powerful.  Thoughts become thing, that is the guarantee and we don’t want negative, unconscious thoughts that are contrary to what we want to create be the ones that become the things!!

Until we learn that we can rewrite our story, most of us are running the program we learned as children.  This could be a good story but I bet for most people it is filled with contradictions and beliefs that are not getting us where we want to go. It isn’t anyone’s fault it is just the way our society works.

I like to use myself to illustrate a point because it makes it more real.  Here is an example of one of the accomplishments on my list:  “I shall achieve the rank of Ambassador Diamond”  which is the 2nd highest rank in our company.  That is a lofty goal and if I am out of alignment, it will be impossible to achieve, even though I wrote it as though it has already happened.  If I am in alignment, it can happen easily and quickly!

I can never achieve Ambassador Diamond, no matter how many affirmations I am say, if the real story in my head goes something like this “How am I ever going to get there, no one on my team is working,”, “look how easy it is for Suzy to get to Ambassador Diamond, why is it so hard for me?”, “I would have to work my butt off to make that happen”, “It is just too hard!” “I was stupid to think something like that could happen to me!” “No one wants to join my team”, “I never meet anyone who is interested in my product or business”.  You get the point.  Not a good story, right?  But guess what those things are manifesting because that is what you are thinking.  The thoughts get affirmed and you are in a vicious cycle of self defeat.

You CAN always rewrite your story.  Decide what it is you want to accomplish in your business, get into a positive frame of mind and start writing.  The more detail the better.  Make a commitment to accomplishing what you wrote and take these four important steps:

1-Put your story where you can see it every day.

2-Read it out loud once a day, even a few times a week can be powerful, especially in the morning to set your day up.

3-Don’t concern yourself with how, when, why, put that story in the bottle and trust that the loving creator will make it happen.

4-When you catch yourself running the old story in your mind or in your behavior say “That is not my story!”

You will probably be doing step four often if not all the time in the beginning.  As you run your new story and stop the old one you will find that you say it less and less and that you are believing your new story more and more.

Today is the perfect day to rewrite your story. Give it a try.

Wow! I Didn’t Expect this to Be So Powerful!!

It has been nine days since I made my List of Accomplishments for 2014 and declared that they were already mine.  I had no idea how powerful they would be.

My business has been like a beehive of activity these past 9 days, where before there was just a slow trickle. I am booking wrap parties left and right, signing up new customers, filling my current party and wrapping people like crazy!  In order for my accomplishments to be complete, I need this kind of activity so I know that the Universe has stepped in and is working it’s magic!  You can call this force God if you like.  I like the word Universe.

The bigger changes have happened in me and that is why the activity is so high.  Like I wrote in my blog, (see the above link), when you are in business for yourself and especially in network marketing it is easy to lose sight of yourself in the dust of those who are accomplishing and promoting quickly.  I did. I think it comes from the advice we usually get “pay attention to your competition, if they are successful they are doing something right”. The problem with that is that you are focused on them and not on what you want to accomplish.

After writing my list that all changed and has not gone back.  I am in what some call the vortext of creation, I can feel it.  I am right there in the mix with my accomplishments watching them manifest! I both love and am so grateful for this flurry of activity!

As the year goes on I will be writing more about this because I feel that I am on to something big! Something that other people could benefit from.

Ever since I got involved in Network Marketing I have struggled with the Male Model of building a business which is action focused.  I have known in my heart that there was a more feminine way of being successful in this field.  I am calling it the Feminine Way of Business.

The Feminine Way of Business  is about build powerful businesses without muting our feminine impulses or desensitizing our hearts. It’s not about sex or gender identity but about

1. Following your intuition
2. Building lasting relationship
3. Planting seeds and nurturing them to grow naturally
4. Going with the Flow
5. Paying attention
6. Inner Guidance
7. Receptivity
8. Tenderness
9. Compassion
10. Celebration
11. Authenticity
12. Knowing when to take action
13. Leading with your heart
14. Working with the Universal Laws
15. Collaboration and support
16. Interdependence
17. Expansive and unlimited vision

Just to name a few.  I will expand on this concept as it is evolving so stay tuned.

One Magic Word!

It is January 3rd and my business is all a buzz! I have had an amazing amount of interest in my It Works Global business opportunity with 12 people asking for more information in the first two days.  I have two strong prospects that will join who have large networks, one of the things I have been looking for in business partners.  Two people booked parties.  This is not the normal activity for me!!!

What happened?

Here is what happened.  On New Years Eve I sat down to write my list of intentions for 2014.  I do intentions rather than resolutions.  As I was about to write “My List of Intentions for 2014” my inner guidance said “Accomplishments”.  I immediately changed it to “My List of Accomplishments for 2014” and I felt a shift inside of me.  Not a small shift, a BIG energetic shift! It was as though the word “Accomplishments” was a magic word for me, like “Open Sesame”, that magical phrase in the story of  Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves where the phrase opens the mouth of a cave in which forty thieves have hidden a treasure.  I felt like I had found my “Open Sesame”!! and like magic something opened up in me.

I have consciously used the Law of Attraction successfully in my life for many, many years and it has also turned out to be a great tool for self discovery because of what happens when you start working with it. I say I have consciously used the Law of Attraction but we are always using it whether we are aware of it or not.   The simplified version of the Law of Attraction is

What you think about and focus on is what comes into your reality.  Using the Law of Attraction I would sit down each New Years Eve and set my intentions, which were statements about what I wanted to achieve.  It is like planting seeds for the future.  It becomes a great tool for transformation when you start digging up the seeds to see how things are going.  I have three specific ways that I dig up the seeds and it is by asking questions.

The first question is When?

The moment you ask the question when, you have brought doubt into your visualization.  When places a timeline on what you want to create and has the reverse effect.  It lengthens the time it will take to manifest.  It is like pulling the seed out of the grown to see if it has sprouted roots yet and popping it back into the ground when you see that it doesn’t.  This seed now has to re-establish itself and get back into growing.  I am so guilty of asking “When?”

The second question “How?” is my nemesis!

In the Law of Attraction ” The how is the domain of the universe” and none of our business!  Being the good business people that we are we want to know HOW!  Now we are grabbing that seed by its baby leaves and yanking it out of the ground!   How gets me in trouble every time.  I start to look around at everyone else who is climbing the ladder of success in my company at rapid speeds and say How is this ever going to happen for me, I don’t know what they are doing to move so fast.  Now my gears are spinning and I am focusing on the wrong thing and guess what?  It is going to take longer for my desire to manifest!  How always throws me back into “When?”  The truth is once the seed is planted just let it grow!

And the KILLER of all questions we can ask is ” What am I Doing Wrong!”

Once you ask the question “What am I Doing Wrong” you have entered the slippery slope.  You might as well just put your foot on the seedling and just squash it, because it isn’t going to grow where you are going!  Now its about comparing what someone else is doing with what you are doing.  Thinking about all the times in the past that you did something and it turned out “wrong”.  When you ask the question what am I doing wrong, your mind makes the picture of what you are doing wrong and now you are visualizing the very thing you don’t want to happen.  That is a business stopper for sure and I am guilty of it!

I have learned a lot about myself asking those three questions about my business and I am a better person for it, but does it help my business grow and succeed?  No!

We are here to follow our own unique path, whether it be in business or in personal life. There is peace in knowing that each one of us is on our own unique journey that is unfolding perfectly. Mine will never be like anyone else’s and we can’t do it wrong! We fall out of peace when we judge and compare our journey with someone else’s. There is no right or wrong way to walk our path. Our journey is perfectly designed to learn specific things in our evolution. If there was a better way for us to evolve, personally and collectively we would be doing it. Embrace the journey and be you.

So back to my magic word and why I think it is so powerful.

Look at the four words we use when making a list of things we desire and tell me which one resonates with you.

1. Resolutions: the act of finding an answer or solution to a conflict, problem, etc. : the act of resolving something (always focused on a problem to be solved)
2. Goal: Something you are trying to do or achieve toward which you direct your effort
3. Intention: an idea that you plan to carry out, something you mean to do whether you pull it off or not
4. Accomplishment: from the French word acomplir which means to fulfill, fill up, complete. Something you have completed successfully.

What happened to me when I used the word “accomplishment”  it put me on the other side of what I desired to create as though it was already complete.  It had already happened!  In the Law of Attraction experts always say start at the end and build from there.  From the end you can see the complete picture of what you want to create.  What this word caused in me is a KNOWING that my list was already completed and all I have to do is GET OUT OF THE WAY and watch it unfold!!

I coupled my List of Accomplishments with another powerful word “Shall” and created a list of things that would support these accomplishments.  Shall is a word that is not commonly used in the United States.  Listen to  the definition and you will know why it is more powerful than the word will.  Shall: something that will take place or exist in the future.   Shall is future tense, expresses determination. In the field of law the term “shall” means “mandatory”.   Believe you are creative and you shall become creative.

Using the word Shall creates a field of dynamic magnetism around you and it is mandatory that it happens.  For example on my List of Accomplishments for 2014 I wrote “I shall achieve the rank of Ambassador Diamond” and by saying it that way it becomes mandatory that it happens.  Now the universe steps in to match the energy of the proclamation bringing fresh inspiration, action and serendipitous events.  What I have noticed is I am inspired to do certain things and new inspiration is dropping in to lead me where I need to go.

Words are very powerful and it is important to pay attention to them!

You know how you feel when you have accomplished something? How it feels to get that pat on the back for a job well done?  When I wrote my List of Accomplishments for 2014 I could almost hear that imaginary crowd cheering and feel that pat on the back.  I really feel like I HAVE accomplished them!

This is my Finished Accomplishments for 2014.  I wrote them by hand in calligraphy.  If felt important to me to write them by hand because that taps into that part of your brain that is imaginative, trusting and creative. I wanted it to look like an award so I put stars on it and framed it.  I included a photo of myself because that way I am included in the energy.  As you can also see I am dreaming BIG.  Why not?  If this is already a done deal I might as well go for the best.