Conscious Success

July 25, 2023

“For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7)

Our culture is obsessed with “success.” I mean, what leader doesn’t want to be successful? We’re in the age of optimizing for success. There’s so many self-proclaimed sages spewing advice on how to be successful that it’s hard to keep track of all the available optimization.

This perfect morning routine. That perfect diet. This level of “readiness score.” That engineered productivity list. We’re all running in so many different directions chasing all the prescribed versions of success.

There’s a problem though. Who gets to define what success looks like? What success looks like in your chapter of life may look different than what it looks like in mine. What one person determines as “the good life” might be another person’s worst nightmare. 

In our On Purpose Leadership Framework, we talk extensively about defining authentic success. If you don’t define success - someone else will for you.

So, how aware are you about what you define as success?

Our thoughts, emotions and perceptions ultimately impact what we define as “success.” The problem is, this often takes place by way of drifting as opposed to a purposeful process.

A good portion of what we are driven by daily is happening without purposeful, conscious thought. 

What we wire into our thinking is stored in our non-conscious mind where 99.9 percent of our mind activity is. It stores thoughts, emotions, perceptions and impacts our conscious mind. 

When we are unconsciously pursuing a definition of success on a daily basis, that is by STC definition - drifting.

Drift preys on the poorly defined. Get vague about what you call success and you’ll unconsciously start pursuing what everyone else is pursuing. 

Authentic success only comes from conscious thinking. Purposeful thinking. On purpose reflection. It’s determining our intentions, clearly. It’s knowing exactly how you want to show up to your current situation. 

There’s arguably nothing more important for an emerging leader than to define what success looks like. 

Define success or find yourself drifting.