Congratulations! You are successful. Finally! You set a goal, gained the skill and knowledge to achieve it, made mistakes along the way, kept going, created a vision and an action plan, overcame the challenges along the way, and achieved success. It felt great! And then the feeling shifted. Why doesn't it feel the same? How did it change? Why do you feel the same as you’ve always felt, even though you've 'made it'? How come no matter where you go or what you buy or do, you still feel a little let down in the end? And who do you talk to about it...
Years ago, I sat at the Dream Inn Hotel in Santa Cruz. I had been a mentor for twenty years and had achieved a nice level of success. I had recently sat in a performance car that I had been dreaming about and thought, "It's going to be many years before I can have this..." I watched people enjoy the poolside cabanas and rooms that opened onto the patio at the Dream Inn. It all seemed slightly out of reach. Too much money. Too much time to get there. A mystery in that moment.
Little did I know that I would have access to all of it within less than a year. I am driving the car. I am in the cabana. I am staying in the luxury suite. What does that mean about me? About time? About money? About success?
I am currently in the process of evolving my life and business to the next level again this year. I have been doing this each year since I was fifteen years old. I looked around at my circumstances back then and thought, "The people who are setting the example for me have not availed themselves of the knowledge, skills and training that is currently available to have a better quality of life and a higher sense of self. I can do better than that." So I began my journey of awareness, conscious living, emotional intelligence, re-parenting, and transformation. And each year a next level of success AND evolution presented itself. Sometimes I accepted the invitation and sometimes not.
It is so easy to simply decide to settle where you are. You have more than most. You are smarter and/or more aware than most. You have things you enjoy that make you feel good or distract you from the fact that you feel bad. You seem successful. You look successful. You are happy on occasion. You feel free every once in awhile. Why not set up camp right here?
I notice if I don't take on my evolution each year, my mind, ego and body urges start to create chaos and mischief with the people and circumstances around me. But when I am on my growth edge and focused on a vision of myself in the future, this does not happen. I also notice that with new power comes new responsibility. I have to manage my appetites as I grow, or they will devour me. This is on of the challenges of success. There are more...There are fewer and fewer people to reflect healthy and integrated living back to you. There are more people starving or overindulging. And your ego wants you to join them. The practice then, is living balanced lives leading to joy, love, liberation, wisdom, appreciation and empowerment. Stroking the ego is easy, managing it is far more challenging. Creating excitement/control/fear for the mind is just around the corner every day. Wholeness, sanity, peace and security takes practice and vigilance every day. What to choose?
“No matter how much money or power you get, you are going to feel exactly like you do right now."
I have a mentor who challenges me. He asks me questions and does not give me answers. After one powerful conversation, I asked if he could see something about me based on his EQ that I could not see. He said yes and I asked him to share it with me. He said these unforgettable words... "You think there is an amount of money or power that is going to make you feel different than you do right now. And you are wrong. No matter how much money or power you get, you are going to feel exactly like you do right now." Wow. He was right and I knew it on a gut level. But as an evolved person I also knew I could make a profound choice in that moment. I had practiced awareness in action for the previous forty-four years. I could choose to feel how I thought success would feel in the future, right then in that moment. Or I could keep chasing success and power and keep having the experience of feeling the same as I did now every time. So I chose. And now I am living that choice. Each day I practice feeling fully successful now. It's not always easy, but I have the ability to do it. No waiting, no wondering. Just successful and the fun, satisfaction, and power that goes with that experience. It’s a new practice and it works. And so thank you to Mike A.
What do you choose?