Tweet

Success and Leadership - The Measuring Sticks of Success

Written by: Theresa-Maria Napa

Article Overview: We often use the wrong measuring stick as to our worth and achievements. It is the money stick! We get mesmerized by the glitter of celebrities and the Fortune list of the wealthiest people. We compare ourselves with a system that honors entertainment more than education, more than how we care for our families, or how hard we work. We compare our bodies to bodies that we are told are the bodies to have in order to have happiness. We need to stop comparing ourselves with unrealistic goals. What's good for one person is not necessarily good for you or me.

Success and Leadership - The Measuring Sticks of Success

"It is an inexorable Law of Nature that bad must follow good, that decline must follow a rise. To feel that we can rest on our achievements is a dangerous fallacy. Inner strength can overcome anything that occurs outside." I Ching

I am a pretty amazing woman - I may not be an Olympic woman of the games, but I am an Olympic woman in life. I bet you are too!

I have been using the wrong measuring stick as to my worth and achievements. It is the money stick! We get mesmerized by the glitter of celebrities and the Fortune list of the wealthiest people. We compare ourselves with a system that honors entertainment more than education, more than how we care for our families, or how hard we work. We compare our bodies to bodies that we are told are the bodies to have in order to have happiness. We need to stop comparing ourselves with unrealistic goals. What's good for one person is not necessarily good for you or me.

What brought this to my mind today is my comparison measuring stick. I am enrolled in a special business building program and I caught myself comparing myself with the achievements of another member of the group. I am happy for the person who succeeded in reaching her goals, but not happy for me. Why? Because I was telling myself there is something wrong with what I am doing. I know I am not alone in gremlin thinking. We beat ourselves with negative thoughts and feelings more than any foe would do.

Then, of course, there is the body image measuring stick, wanting a figure to match Angelina Jolie or Halle Berry. If only I would lose weight, my life would be so much better! That is false dreaming. We know of people who have lost weight only to gain it back. They didn't reduce the negative self-esteem to match the healthier body.

So here is my true measuring stick for the last eight years: The first five years of the millennium were full of challenges from being a caregiver to both my aunt, who sadly passed away more than two years ago, and my homebound mother. I was laid off in mid-2003 from a company that was downsizing. In mid-2004 I ended up in the hospital emergency room. My stay was 15 days - you know they don't keep you in the hospital for that long unless it is serious. It had to do with radiation side effects. I ended up in hospital again due to radiation side-effects in January 2005 - shorter stay. At the end of 2006 I lost two of my beloved cats, Desiree and Prospero.

Life is not lived linearly. While all of the above was happening in my world, I persevered in following through with building my dream coaching business. I enrolled in the a special coaching certification program and was certified in 2000. I didn't stop with certification. I have invested shamelessly in developing my skills to offer my clients the best and continue to do so.

Like so many other who have been building their businesses for several years, I have been erroneously using the money stick to measure my success. Telling myself that by this time I should be earning six figures. The fact is that it has only been since 2007 when I could put in the time and commitment needed to grow any business. That is less than two years!

Another fact is that there are processes going on while we are moving toward something new and letting go of the old paradigms. We have old programs running in our head that we respond to automatically. Developing the new programs takes persistence, practice and more practice until they become automatic. The ego is an opponent to change and will do everything to keep worn out programs. It is like they are running on the old LP's and we need to put in new thoughts to run on futuristic equipment, letting the past go to make room for the new dreams.

We want to rush to have things happen. We hear only what we want to hear regarding others successes. We don't know what they have been through to get there. It took Edison over 10,000 failures to give us the light bulb! Did he do that all in one day? Of course, not! Nor should we measure our success by false realities.

The point is that even while life might be throwing you detours, you can get around them with small milestones at a time. Since I began working on a business, I have grown immensely from developing a website to producing teleclasses, workshops, programs, and coaching my wonderful clients on their Olympic journey.

As I said in the beginning - I bet you have had amazing Olympic experiences!

TIPS:

• Build your dreams even when you are experiencing detours

• Create a vision statement that is compelling to keep your dream alive. It becomes a magnet to keep you focused.

• Use resources that support your vision.

• Sign up for whatever classes you need to build your skills

• Get a mentor - a coach. I can't remember the last time I was without a coach, even when I had cancer I had a coach.

• You are an Olympian in your life. What is the gold you are aiming to achieve within the next five years?

• Think leader. Your leadership is wherever you show up. Olympians are leaders who are committed 100 % to getting the gold. Those Olympians who didn't get a metal doesn't make them less of an Olympian. They showed up.

• Remember: Anything Is Possible and your potential to be a bigger winner is amazing!

Related Articles
  What Success Means to People
  Qualities That Define True Leadership
  Why do you need Key Performance Indicators?
  Measuring Effectiveness of Your Team
  Breaking Out the Ruler: A Guide to Measuring PR Efforts

Article Tags: angelina jolie, body image, business building, caregiver, ching, decline, fallacy, first five years, foe, glitter, halle berry, happiness, healthier body, inner strength, law of nature, measuring stick, negative thoughts, self esteem, thoughts and feelings, unrealistic goals
Referred by: http://www.LeadingEdgeCoaching.com



Related Forum Posts
Re: THE SECRET TO SUCCESS IS ALL IN YOUR HEAD...RIGHT NOW!!! - Success = Thinking (Head) + Heart (Feeling / Interest) + Hand (doing/ action). Success - H3 Robert
Re: Success - I study success intently, and would like to share: Here's two excellent and nearly identical success-formulas from a couple of the world's masters. FIRST FORMULA: 1. Passionate Desire 2. Clear, Definite Purpose 3. Committed Decision 4. Take Action In Faith (Bonus Secret Sauce: 5. Repeat Consistently) I made a video about this, but am not allowed to link it yet. Google "Ryze Success Steps" for it. Oh, and this is Napoleon Hill's (Master Of Success Laws)'s Formula. SECOND FORMULA: 1. Passionate Desire 2. Understand It Is Already Done (Faith) 3. Relax & Allow It To Unfold (Go about your life calmly) This one is courtesy of Abraham-Hicks (inspiration for the movie The Secret). Hope that helps!
Success Strategies - How to get the results you want now? Success Strategies and Action Steps I have used are: The Power of Choice Where you are at this present moment, is exactly perfect from the choices you have made. If you want to be somewhere else, you have to decide clearly what that is (your goal/outcome) and create action steps to achieve this. The Power of Focus The book "The Power of Focus" by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt, is one of my treasures in my Entrepreneur Library. If you focus on what you want versus what you do not want, your conscious and sub-conscious mind will direct attention to this. The movie, What the Bleep, Down the Rabbit Hole, explains this in detail about quantum physics and what we create in our lives. The Power of Commitment This is not about commitment to others. The first step is the commitment, your word, you make to yourself. Accountability and responsibility are additional success strategies and ingredients to creating the success, defined by you, that you want. The commitment to others reflects your integrity, your word and the team you work with. Co-workers, clients, yoru family, friends and community. My Success Acronyn in Success Breakthroughs(c) is: S pecific & self-directed U nlimited opportunities & possibilities C reate powerful outcomes C onsistent measureable results E xperience pwoerful transformation S olution and action-oriented S uccessful habits and outcomes Break Through to Powerful LIfestyle & Performance Choices Moira
Re: Books for the Entrepreneur - Here's one of my most recent books The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success By Brian Tracy
Re: What is your age? - Kevin, Success is the best revenge. they are telling the world that been raised by sinlge parent will not determine their success in life


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

How Promotional Caps became a Fashion Trend

Attracting Passionate Employees

What is an Adaptive Organization

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.