The True Meaning Of Success

I used to think that success meant excelling in your career, making a lot of money, and enjoying the trappings of success. So I committed myself to achieve this success. First in the corporate world in sales and later in business as a coach. It wasn't until life forced me to rediscover the true meaning of success that I learned that it was never about that.

Transcript

So,

What is the true meaning of success?

I used to think that success had to do with excelling in your career,

Making a lot of money and enjoying the trappings of success.

So I committed myself to achieving this success.

First in the corporate world in sales and later in business as a coach.

I've experienced being the top salesperson at my company,

Having a waiting list for my coaching business while being at the top of my game.

I drove around a fancy BMW,

I lived in a beautiful home overlooking the ocean,

And I had all the nice things.

The only problem was that I was often feeling burnt out,

Stressed,

And anxious.

In moments of futility and frustration,

I could get pretty low too.

And it didn't make sense to me.

I had supposedly achieved the good life,

And yet it just wasn't worth it.

In an act of desperation,

I ended up traveling to Costa Rica and taking some time off to reconnect with the simple pleasures of life.

Some ice cold coconut water,

Surfing,

Community events,

Good friends,

And some personal development workshops and retreats.

At one point,

I was hanging out on the beach with my new bohemian friend,

Who after hearing my story asked me,

Adam,

What does success mean to you?

And it was at this point that I realized it had nothing to do with money or accomplishments or having nice things.

It was about living a balanced life that is in harmony with who I am at my core and how I wish to express myself and how I wish to live.

So it was a hard lesson for me to learn,

And since then,

I've made a lot of changes,

And my whole life has flourished as a result.

And the irony is that these are the exact changes and shifts that I've been facilitating with my clients at the time.

In working as a career coach and helping people change their career,

My whole process was to first help people understand who they are at their core.

What are they good at?

What are they like?

What are their talents and interests and values?

And how do they want to live?

And then little by little,

Helping people move in that direction.

Now it tended to focus mostly on the career change aspect of it,

But it included everything else because in the process,

What I discovered was that it's so much more than just about having the right career.

So you can go through this process to discover your passion in life and live with purpose and change your career to make that happen,

But it's also not necessary because what I discovered was that people started to feel better the moment they started living in alignment with who they are and what they're all about.

And so what I witnessed was people finding success that had nothing to do with the trappings.

In a three month program,

People would get to a point after five,

Six weeks where all of a sudden they feel amazing.

They feel alive.

They're enthusiastic because they have a direction in life.

One guy intended to become a copywriter after working as a teacher.

Another intended to launch her writing career after working as a recruiter.

Another guy transitioned from selling software to helping people find homes as a realtor and a property manager.

And the beautiful thing was that they became what I would call overnight successes because their success had nothing to do with the outside world.

It had everything to do with changing their attitude on life and becoming this new and improved version of themselves that takes care of themselves,

That honors who they are.

The writer,

For example,

When we had met,

She wasn't writing.

She was in a negative toxic work environment that was draining her energy and she wasn't putting any energy into writing.

So I took her through this process to help her understand the importance of getting into writing but not just that,

Also spending more time in nature,

Taking more hikes out in the woods with her husband and starting to exercise more and restarting her meditation practice.

All these little things that had been neglected were now coming online because she was moving in this new direction that she felt inspired by.

So your new direction,

It could be a new career or it could be just a shift in your lifestyle,

A shift in your attitude,

A shift in your approach to life to seeking the approval of those outside of you,

Trying to achieve success or just try to find happiness within your job,

Let's say,

To instead shifting the focus onto yourself,

Understanding,

Okay,

Well,

Hold on a second.

What makes me happy and what's important for me in living a good life?

Because what people inevitably figured out along the way was that they just wanted to feel content.

They wanted to experience peace of mind.

They wanted to be at ease in life and do the things that they enjoy while also seeking to improve their situation at work,

Their relationship with their boss,

Their productivity,

Their performance.

But that was just one piece of it.

It was all designed and orchestrated with this bigger picture idea,

Which was how can I live a good life?

How can I feel better about myself?

What does a good life look like and do I believe that I have what it takes?

Do I believe that this good life is even possible?

So this was the work that we got to do and the results have been just incredible.

I could see it on their faces,

These frowns turning into smiles,

This lethargy turning into enthusiasm.

I could hear it in their voice.

It's now going from somber tone to bright and vibrant.

And at a certain point,

Their life took on a momentum of its own and my ideas and suggestions stopped being so necessary.

They started seeking things out for themselves.

I had a client who I helped start a coaching business and once he was underway,

He was off playing hockey with his friends all the time and working out more at 5 a.

M.

Going for runs in the morning in Minnesota where it's frigid because he was high on life.

He knew why he's here,

Which was to create a beautiful life.

I had another client who ended up sticking with his company.

He realized he didn't need to change his career at that point.

He just needed to shift his mindset and his attitude.

So instead,

We focused on some mindfulness practices and he got deeper into meditation and he started reading more,

Spending more time with his wife.

And all of these shifts that I witnessed with my career change clients,

They happened for him too.

He softened up.

And that joy that had been completely absent started to come back online.

When we started,

He was just full of anxiety and stress and worry and his mind was just churning and then he started to make these changes.

Again,

Started to exercise more,

Started to eat better,

Started to have a more balanced schedule in his day.

Started to deal more harmoniously with his clients and his co-workers.

Started being more honest with himself and with others.

Because guys,

The nature of success is to live a good life that is in balance and harmony with who you are and what it means to live a good life as a human.

To make time for the things that give us energy and to find this direction,

To have a purpose.

And that purpose being creating the best life that you can willfully and intentionally and with confidence knowing that you can do it and making that commitment is what will change everything.

This is what I love to help people with.

Now more than ever that I get to help people on all the big picture changes and not only help people change their career because again,

It's not just about that.

I changed my career from sales to coaching and I ran into the same problems.

Burnt out,

Stressed,

Anxious,

Feeling low,

Unhealthy.

I thought,

What the hell,

I landed my dream job,

I'm working my dream job,

I'm having success and making good money,

Working with a lot of clients.

What gives?

Well,

I hadn't learned this lesson yet of balance and harmony and aligning the rest of my life with who I am.

I aligned part of my life and that made a big,

Big difference.

The career part,

I aligned it more with my talents and my interests and my passions and that helped a lot,

But I didn't do the other stuff.

I hadn't changed my lifestyle.

I hadn't changed my working habits and how I approach work.

I was overdoing it.

I wasn't spending enough time with friends.

I wasn't spending much time out in nature.

I wasn't surfing a whole lot and I wasn't in a supportive environment.

So over this whole process,

I've ended up moving to a foreign country to live in Costa Rica where I can really indulge in what I love,

Spending time in nature,

Surfing,

Connecting with like-minded people,

Involving myself more in spirituality and personal development activities and events and living a life that is much more balanced and harmonious with the natural rhythms of being human.

And this is what's possible for you and for anyone else that's listening because you don't have to move to Costa Rica.

You don't have to change your career.

You just have to figure out what's important to you,

What the good life looks like,

And you start making changes.

You start committing to living in alignment.

If you do this,

I guarantee your life will improve,

That anxiety and stress will fade away,

That depression will become a thing of the past,

And a newfound sense of peace and joy will become your new reality.