Success Without Suffering
I’ve got a crazy counter-culture idea I’d like to discuss with you…
What if we could achieve success without suffering?
What if we could reach our professional and financial goals without neglecting, depleting, or harming our mind, body & spirit?
Call me crazy… But I *know* that it’s totally possible.
I arrived at this new definition of success after crashing and burning – hard. Heart surgery at the age of 28 precipitated by a decade of working to the point of exhaustion has a way of scaring you straight. But I don’t want you or anyone else to experience what I did in order to realize there’s a better way.
Now I’m not saying there isn’t hard work or sacrifice involved. In fact, in a lot of ways, the old paradigm of success – grind, hustle, climb and sleep when you’re dead – is a lot easier. Less nuanced. Less intentional. There are far fewer variables to consider and you’ll have lots of societal support along the way. For at least the last few decades – work-til-you-burnout success stories have been glamorized and celebrated. The cost to the individual or individuals that make up an exhausted team have been ignored or minimized. But if you’ve ever experienced anything close to the level of burnout that I did then you know at a soul level… it’s simply not worth it. We’re not doing it anymore. We’re creating a new paradigm of success that honors our humanity.
Success without suffering requires a radically different approach that starts with slowing down to speed up. Taking the time to really understand what you want, why you want it, and how you want it to feel. It requires remaining present throughout the entire journey – noticing what’s “working,” what’s not, and – at what cost. It requires ruthless prioritization, setting and upholding exquisite boundaries, and checking in multiple times daily with all aspects of the Self (not just the balance sheet and the job title). Sometimes, it will require abandoning or tweaking ways-of-being that are simply too taxing to the nervous system – even if they net “results”. It requires strategic thinking and efficiency of action. It requires an abundance of self-awareness, self-respect, and self-compassion.
Call me crazy, but I envision a world in which *everyone* carves their path to success sustainably. It’s nothing short of a revolution and we know that in order to change things at a societal level – we need more and more people standing up and declaring that they will no longer sacrifice thriving for striving. And if you’ve read this far… I hope I can count you as one of those people.
Does this concept feel too radical or simply out of reach? Are you afraid that you’ll be left behind professionally if your foot isn’t slammed on the gas pedal at all times? These are the challenges I’m here to help you consider and overcome.
