WHAT IS SUCCESS?

I'm currently reading "Success Intelligence" by Robert Holden. It's a fascinating book and one which I'll review properly once I've finished it. For now though I wanted to share the question that the author asks early on, what does success mean to you? It seems fundamental yet it's really not so easy once you begin to think about it. No two people will answer that question in the same way I'm sure.

For me I like the idea of success as a journey and not just as a destination. I want to enjoy the getting there and not just the arrival. Success is also about who I am becoming, it's more than just about what I'm getting or achieving. In fact the more I write, the more I realise that my own ideas are still at the evolutionary stage - let's call them a work in progress. Once they are more fully formed I'll share them with you in a future post.

Recently I talked about following your joy though and I wanted to share the fact that I really did live up to that yesterday. As a part-time GP I now work in the surgery only three days a week. The rest of the time is my own to pursue my other interests and today I did precisely that. I'm working on an article for one of the medical magazines about coaching. I wrote it on my laptop whilst sipping cappuccino in the coffee shop in my village. I spared a thought for my partners at work on what is undoubtedly the busiest day of the week in general practice and as always I smiled inwardly at the thought of being somewhere else on a Monday. But it was more than just being elsewhere, it was about doing what I truly love doing. Coaching is my passion and something that I care deeply about. This latest article was about coaching doctors and is really at the core of the sort of work I love; so yes, today; I really did follow my joy. When I was doing that work it felt effortless, I loved it. I felt inspired and somehow almost guided. I had a strong sense of being in the right place at the right time.

I haven't yet figured out my full answer to the success definition question but if I was to look just at today I'd have to say I think I came pretty close.