What is success and how are you measuring it?

Is it possible or at least worth a thought that what you thought was success was in fact not success at all?

What if the true impact and success in life was not the external badges of things like our job title, profession, department or function we work in, our job level, seniority, employer brand we work for, our salary package and particular lifestyle which goes with this - but something else?

For instance, what if we lost our job, got demoted, overlooked for promotion and removed any external badges as per the above - would we be able to confidently say we still felt alright and content or would we feel instead unsteady, lost, desperate, panicked, lacking in self-worth, insecure and generally low in self-confidence and engagement in life. Worth a stop moment.

How we feel on the inside gives us our level of well-being where "being well" is about the quality of connection we are having with ourselves, with our bodies and our feelings, and importantly how all this extends out to other people we interact with. In other words, what true good are external badges of worth when life is lived emotionally and reactionary or tunnelled to create any rumbling of disturbance, disharmony, conflict, unease, control, aloofness, autopilot or distance with others for example? Because all this can leave us feeling tense, restrictive, tight, protected as opposed to feeling light, spaciousness and full on the inside.

What is the way or quality you are choosing to live life in?

The way we live or the quality of our livingness and way of operating in life needs to be looked at because it is the generator of how we feel and how we deal with life-work: our livingness is our well-being.

Irrespective of anything, well-being levels are to do with things such as -

• Our willingness to be honest with ourselves and also others too about how we are doing and feeling

• Being aware of our reactions, hurts and upsets

• Understanding why we are off-key

• Observing the choices we’re making e.g. which sap our energy, vitality, joy or even which keep us in comfort, convenience, arrangement i.e. status-quo

• Breathing our own breath over the breath of a panicked moment or stress

• Learning to open up and know when we are using protective layers as shields

The above list are starter pointers only and not exhaustive, though they highlight the aspect of well-being being ultimately about self-relationship and the particular quality of how our own way of relating supports us to be the real and true us in whole-life.

The quality of how we live is the true measure of success. And how we live is the measure of our integrity.

And so no matter what we do have in life, the job or profession, salary, title, success is the internal settlement we live with and can feel inside to then share and impart this balanced nature of ourselves with all those we live and work with.