Swindon & Wiltshire News
Expert opinion: The illusion of success
I used to think that success was all about money, and that if I accumulated enough I would have achieved my goal. This translated into caring more about what I was doing, than who I was being.
But while money can be helpful, at the end of the day it’s just money. Now, you might be thinking, here comes one of those articles that is overly esoteric and full of ‘you can do anything’ motto’s.
Well, to some extent it is. But on another level, I want to ask you whether you’ve taken the time to analyse what success looks like for you?
Maybe reaching a certain level of wealth is important, but for some who have reached an amount they thought would bring satisfaction, they realise that there is more to satisfaction than mere financial wealth.
‘So, what do you want?’ I mean really want?
When we slow down enough to get clarity – which, by the way, means slowing down significantly, not just skipping the gym one morning – we discover things that are more important than the societal expectation that ‘wealth brings satisfaction’. We begin to realise that things like freedom, autonomy, sense of purpose, or identity are increasingly important too.
Personally, I’ve found the practice of slowing down exceptionally helpful in building my business, developing relationships and enjoying life. Indeed, we often think that Busyness = Business. But, things don’t have to be frantic or complicated to be effective, or productive.
One simple approach to helping you realise what’s important in your life and how you might measure success, is a gap analysis. You can use whatever tool you prefer, but mostly I use a ‘spider’ diagram.
You can do this yourself by giving all the areas of your life a ‘leg’ on a spider diagram and give each ‘leg’ ten markers to represent increments of 10 percent.
Map where you are today and join up the dots.
Then map where you would need to be to achieve your own version of success and join up those dots. The gap between the two is the dissonance between where you are today and where you want to be.
Now you’ve got a better understanding of what success looks like and what you need to work on.
If you’d like help creating your own gap analysis, or want to work on closing the gaps, give me a call.
Matt Goddard is an executive and life coach who supports high-performing professionals, entrepreneurs and freelancers to create the success they want. For more information please go to www.changeleaf.co.uk or call 01793 765144.
