The Measuring Sticks of Success

“It is an inexorable Law of Nature that bad must follow good, that decline must follow a rise. To feel that we can rest on our achievements is a dangerous fallacy. Inner strength can overcome anything that occurs outside.” I Ching

I am a pretty amazing woman – I may not be an Olympic woman of the games, but I am an Olympic woman in life. I'll bet you are too!

I have been using the wrong measuring stick as to my worth and achievements. It is the money stick! We get mesmerized by the glitter of celebrities and the Fortune list of the wealthiest people. We compare ourselves with a system that honors entertainment more than education, more than how we care for our families, or how hard we work. We compare our bodies to bodies that we are told are the bodies to have in order to have happiness. We need to stop comparing ourselves with unrealistic goals. What’s good for one person is not necessarily good for you or me.

What brought this to my mind today is my comparison measuring stick. I am enrolled in an accelerated Six Figure Mentorship program. I caught myself comparing myself with the achievements of one the Six Figure members. I am happy for the person who succeeded in reaching her goals, but not happy for me. Why? Because I was telling myself there is something wrong with what I am doing. I know I am not alone in gremlin thinking. We beat ourselves with negative thoughts and feelings more than any foe would do.

Then, of course, there is the body image measuring stick, wanting a figure to match Angelina Jolie or Halle Berry. If only I would lose weight, my life would be so much better! That is false dreaming. We know of people who have lost weight only to gain it back. They didn’t reduce the negative self-esteem to match the healthier body.

So here is my true measuring stick for the last eight years: The first five years of the millennium were full of challenges from being a caregiver to both my aunt, who sadly passed away more than two years ago, and my homebound mother. I was laid off in mid-2003 from a company that was downsizing. In mid-2004 I ended up in the hospital emergency room. My stay was 15 days – you know they don’t keep you in the hospital for that long unless it is serious. It had to do with radiation side effects. I ended up in the hospital again due to radiation side-effects in January 2005 – this time a shorter stay. At the end of 2006 I lost two of my beloved cats, Desiree and Prospero.

Life is not lived linearly. While all of the above was happening in my world, I persevered in following through with building my dream coaching business, Right Track Coaching. I enrolled in the Coaches Training Institute’s coaching certification program and was certified in 2000. I didn’t stop with certification. I have invested shamelessly in developing my skills to offer my clients the best and continue to do so.

Because I have been building my business for several years, I have been erroneously using the money stick to measure my success, telling myself that by this time I should be earning six figures. The fact is that it has only been since 2007 when I could put in the time and commitment needed to grow any business. That is less than two years!

Another fact is that there are processes going on while we are moving toward something new and letting go of the old paradigms. We have old programs running in our head that we respond to automatically. Developing the new programs takes persistence, practice and more practice until they become automatic. The ego is an opponent to change and will do everything to keep the worn out programs. It is like they are running on the old LP’s and we need to put in new thoughts to run on futuristic equipment, letting the past go to make room for the new dreams.

We want to rush to have things happen. We hear only what we want to hear regarding the successes of others. We don’t know what they have been through to get there. It took Edison over 10,000 failures to give us the light bulb! Did he do that all in one day? Of course, not! Nor should we measure our success by false realities.

The point is that even while life might be throwing you detours, you can get around them with small milestones at a time. Since I began business in 2000 I have grown immensely from developing a website to producing leadership and transition teleclasses, workshops, programs, and coaching my wonderful clients on their Olympic journey.

As I said in the beginning – I bet you have had amazing Olympic experiences!

TIPS to adjusting your measuring sticks of success:

* Build your dreams even when you are experiencing detours.

* Create a vision statement that is compelling to keep your dream alive. It becomes a magnet to keep you focused.

* Use resources that support your vision.

* Sign up for whatever classes you need to build your skills.

* Get a mentor – a coach. I can’t remember the last time I was without a coach, even when I had cancer I had a coach.

* You are an Olympian in your life. What is the gold you are aiming to achieve within the next five years?

* Think leader. Your leadership is wherever you show up. Olympians are leaders who are committed 100% to getting the gold. Even though an Olympian didn’t get a medal doesn’t make them less of an Olympian. They showed up.

Remember: Anything Is Possible and your potential to be a bigger winner is amazing.