Be aware of only seeing that which is in front of you. Sometimes we become so fixated on what’s going on in our lives that we forget to look around us.

Often, what we don’t notice are the people who are standing just outside our field of vision, patiently waiting to be recognized or invited into our lives.

Trekking through life is always more fun when you ask others to join you.

Success.

What does that really mean? And what do we mean when we say, “I want to be successful?”

Unless you live on a different planet than I do, you can hardly go a day without someone - either you or someone you know - talking about it.

As much as people talk about it, have you noticed that no one really knows what they actually mean? Or they borrow someone else’s definition of success and pin it on their own career goals and personal action plans.

I often hear my clients talking about the success they want to achieve. Success they desire in a number of areas - their business, career, health, relationships, etc. Yet, no matter the goal or the person sharing the goal, I have noticed a trend.

Many high-achievers and motivated people unconsciously (or sometimes even consciously) adopt bad definitions of success. And use that definition to beat themselves up if they don’t achieve success. Many of the definitions of success I hear from clients, colleagues or friends (and sometimes even myself) are one of the following:

* unrealistic
* impossible to complete
* wholly dependent on the actions of others
* vague and difficult to measure
* based on someone else’s standards or measurements of success

I would like to propose two alternative definitions of success. Two standards that are not only realistic, but achievable. And inspiring, so that you actually feel motivated to take action. This is certainly not an exhaustive list. Just a start…here we go:

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You often register the moment of change immediately; however, many of us do little about it as swiftly. Recently, I encountered Ricardo on a recent research trip to the East Coast. A previously successful lawyer, he was now pursuing a Ph.D. in philosophy and seemed quite happy about his change in both career and life.

His story fascinated me, and I wanted to know two things from him: first, what led him to give up this life path for another and, second, how long did it take him to do it. In reply, Ricardo said that a challenging trial involving a close friend was the straw which broke the camel’s back, though he had been feeling dissatisfied for some time. “In that moment, I saw the ugliness of the situation and saw my unhappiness before me. I saw myself losing the force of life. It was enough of a jolt for me to do something about it.”

I thought about what he had to say and wondered how much more life we could live if we could actually muster up the courage to actually trust ourselves at that first moment of dissatisfaction. Perhaps then we’d spend more time playing the game of life than simply sitting on the sidelines, hesitating about getting involved.