Success is an inside job. “What man can be he must be. This need we call self-actualization.” Abraham Maslow

To know is to experience. Initially for most people success is how much money you make, the positions you hold or all the degrees and awards you acquire. But after awhile, you begin questioning is this all there is in life.

If you follow this void, you will find something deeper and more fulfilling. This questioning can lead you to what Victor Frankl calls Man’s Search for Meaning. You find a connection to a source greater than yourself. You see success in new light.

Just like in October, 2015 Fortune magazine, editor Alan Murray shares how even though the top 40 under 40 on his list have acquired phenomenal financial success, they say that’s a side benefit, not the main goal. Success is having a purpose. Such as the examples he shares, “Success is helping patients, says Michelle Dipp who helped parents of the first baby born with her breakthrough fertility treatment.” Vas Narasimha says, “Success means being on a journey where I can positively impact the world and those around me.”

For each person the path to self-actualization will take a different course. A course that is messy, rugged and transformative.

Success is making a difference for you and others.

How has your Hero’s Journey changed your view of what success is? Did it go from something outside of yourself to something more intrinsic?

My image of success has vastly changed from my journey to:

• Success is being on purpose. Seeing how my work can impact a greater cause.
• Success is a feeling, enjoying where I am, taking in all I can to appreciate, feeling grateful for all that is happening in my life rather than feeling that success is how much I’m doing or making. Yes, that’s all part of the fun but now the satisfaction comes from inside.
• Success is being all I can be without the judgments of how it needs to be, living up to other’s expectations but just living the life that I want, creating that.
• Success is being a contribution. It’s doing what I love, what brings me joy, love and abundance. It’s what lights my soul, my heart while making the path easier for others.

I have realized that it is just in me to be driven, to want more, to be the best I can be, the self-actualization. But what is so great about where I am today, is that it isn’t in competition to be seen as successful or because I don’t feel good enough, trying to prove myself. It’s the inner knowing, living the meaningful life that I feel successful.

It’s a shift in my focus, my perspective of what’s most important in life.
It’s bigger than me.
It is being in alignment with my BEING not my doing.

I value that I have discovered true success. How do I know, because I am at peace with where I am. I feel part of the greater whole.

Share with me on Facebook one way you can find, or have found, greater purpose and meaning in your life by shifting how you view “Success