How is 2019 so far? Are you engaged with some New Years intentions? Once we become clear on our intentions, it’s often helpful to then suss out goals that will support our intentions. For instance, one of my intentions, as mentioned in my New Year, Napping and Intentions blog post, is to continue to inhabit my days in a way that educates and empowers others in BodyMindSpirit health and joy. A goal I have for 2019 is to publish a book that supports that intention.
The overriding pilot on intentions and goals is our own personal definition of success. What are the areas of success that are most important to you? Note that when folks say “success” in everyday conversation, they are most often referring to financial wealth. Financial wealth can certainly be fun, but it’s only one measure of success (and for some folks, isn’t a measure of success at all), and “wealth” is a subjective term.
This weekend, I was reading an article on Inc.com about Mark Cuban, NBA team owner, Shark Tank star, and billionaire, and his one suggestion that can bring about success: hard work. Most people don’t want to hear that. Especially today, where one intriguing social media post can launch someone into stardom and riches, many are looking for easy success that doesn’t involve being a lifelong learner or a hard worker. That CAN happen, but it’s a struck-by-lightning situation, where the odds of instant success happening are miniscule.
Instead, hard work is indeed important, so I agree with the article author on that point. Hard work is the driving factor in financial success, professional success, relational success, family success, health success, and most any other version of success. There are other important factors such as heart, commitment, and balance. I’m a big fan of balance – balance between all of the ways we define success. So although “Bill Gates evidently never slept, never changed clothes, never did anything but code and maneuver and strategize” which certainly helped him follow his technology passion and build an empire and a fortune, I wonder about balance.
Maybe that was the ONLY thing that was important to Gates. I doubt it. In order to work hard and well, we have to be healthy. As socially-wired mammals, most of us have important relationships, as well. Most people don’t desire to be unhealthy or to have failing relationships, so these are measures of success for the vast majority of us. And sometimes success and balance play out as a teeter-totter. For instance we often have to focus on professional success before our definition of financial success can manifest.
There’s a saying that “many of us sacrifice our health in order to make money. Then, we sacrifice our money to recuperate our health.” At the end of the day, I’m a fan of hard work, within the context of overall balance. Important considerations when planning out our intentions and goals are: how will I maintain health and balance while working toward my goals and manifesting my intentions??
How about you? What are your thoughts about success and balance??I’d love to hear your comments and insights below.?
Create Vibrant Health: BodyMindSpirit?
With love & balance,
Laurie
0 Comments