Cassandra was brilliant. She had had a significant impact on her company’s success. In fact, her contribution had helped turn around at least one failing business. The problem was that Cassandra kept burning out. She was beloved by management because she gave herself fully. Within a year in any new job, she was practically running the show. And around that same time, the situation would become unsustainable. On a scale of 1-10, fun & recreation, and friends & family dropped to a 1 or 2. Working too hard impacted her health. In the end, she would quit the job and take long breaks before the next one.
Cassandra is not one person. I have seen it happen a lot. The problem was her success story. For Cassandra, success meant being the absolute best, with no exception. Normal human need for balance got lost, and that put real, long-term success out of reach. Most of us have a vision of what we would like success to look like. What we don’t realize is that we often have a filter that dictates the terms of success, or says we are not capable of or don’t deserve success. It can sound like complaints about a co-worker who has “sold out,” or a boss who is impossible. These stories are wily, and they can get in the way of doing the work that moves us ahead and creates real success.
The reality is that most of us, with hard work and consistency, have what it takes to get where we want to go. Here’s the success story exercise. What is success to you? When you imagine it, what emotions come up? In your family growing up, what stories were you told about success, influence, money? How do those play into your vision or what’s in the way of that vision? And finally, what would it be like if success could flow to you easily? What would you do next?
And please join me for a special event! On March 28th in New York City, my brilliant friend and colleague, Rick Tamlyn, will share his Bigger Game model. Rick’s model and tools have helped thousands of professionals and teams follow their dreams and reach a new level of performance. To learn more, take a look here: https://biggergamelive.com/jumpstart/