Where does success come from? Is it the right education, career choices, and work ethic? Is it who we know? Is it blessings and opportunities?
We usually act as if success is something out there that we must achieve. We think that some arbiter decides whether we have done the right things, worked hard enough, met the secret criteria to belong to the club, or are just one of the lucky ones.
No, no, nope, no.
We are our own sources of success.
Sure, we each have different backgrounds, different life stories that got us to this point. Maybe the story contains advantages or disadvantages. Maybe it’s full of dreams and drama. Or deplete of them. It doesn’t matter. What matters is the story we tell today about from now on.
Such a story feels good to tell, is free of “yeah, buts,” and has no excuses to make.
So, what’s your story?
In your corner,
Mike
PS: If the statement, “I am the source of my success,” sounds too egotistical, try something like, “My connection with [your favorite name for the divine] is the source of my success,” or “My deepest [or highest] self is the source of my success.”
PPS: If any part of the story feels bad, flip it.
PPPS: One tough part about this perspective is accepting a new level of responsibility. If we are the source of our success, then we must be responsible for past and future successes and failures. We can no longer say it was someone else’s fault. On the other hand, we are free to start telling and living our great-feeling story of success. So we got that going for us.
PPPPS: Which is nice.