This week has me thinking a lot about success. I began thinking about what success looks like to me and what I would need to do to achieve it. I also started thinking about what my idea of success has been in the past. Once I started down that rabbit hole, I realized two things. First, my idea of success has changed significantly since I left my career in healthcare and I’m still adjusting to that. Secondly, if I want to succeed in the way that feels good to me now, I am going to need some professional help from a coach.
This is SO difficult for me to acknowledge and articulate. It reminds me how challenging it is for most people to ask for help. Some situations where it is difficult for people to ask for help include:
People who are aging and aren’t able to keep up their responsibilities as they once did.
People needing to heal from past hurt.
People acknowledging mistakes so that they can move forward with planning their future.
People who are recovering from addiction.
People who have made financial decisions that have not moved them forward in a way that they had “hoped.”
The bottom line is that the sooner we acknowledge that we need help and ask for it, the closer we are to relief, healing, and success in those areas that are so important to us. We have to recognize that what has happened in the past doesn’t dictate what will happen in the future.
One coach told me about the acronym FEAR, False Evidence Appearing Real. What is actually false that is appearing so real to us? How is that holding us back? When we are feeling stuck or not reaching our goals, is fear getting in our way? What are we afraid of? What stories are we telling ourselves?
Give this some thought. What does success look like to you? Is it meeting a specific numeric goal? Is it serving people in a specific way? Is it having work-life integration? What do you need to be successful? I’m reaching out to at least one coach today. That’s my one step forward for the day. What’s your one step? Let me know if I can help you work through some of these questions.