Does our definition of success need a rewrite?

I look around and I see people - individuals, leaders and teams - who are existing on paper as a success, but in reality, are just  about scraping by in the polar opposite way to how they thought success would look. 

Everywhere I look I see so much potential for health, wealth and happiness in all of its guises, as it takes many different forms for each of us. Although success is defined by our culture as the accumulation of material possessions, of financial gain and social status, that is not what success - or the combination of health, wealth and happiness - means to each of us individually. 

So why are we still chasing it?

We look around and see celebrities and business leaders who have achieved huge amounts of financial wealth and social status and believe they must be happy, even though they tell us they are not. The status symbols of success are often accompanied by stories in the media of mental breakdowns and burnout, drugs, alcohol, lavish purchases, toxic relationships and endless partying. Our exposure to this narrative has led us to believe that these behaviours are markers of success or necessary challenges on our journey to the top. This is a false construct, and sadly we do not have to look further than our friends, partners or colleagues to see people, businesses and teams who are caught up in its clutches, and are not at ease with themselves. 

Why are we waking up to this dis-ease now? 

2020 highlighted so much of this dis-ease because we had to stop. Many of us were forced to stop, and that is something which we are simply not used to. When was the last time you took the space to breathe deeply, doing nothing else at the same time? When was the last time you switched off your phone (or even just put it down) and were not looking at a screen? We have lost the art of knowing how to connect with ourselves and coping with Covid has forced many individuals and businesses to reassess how our time is being spent. 

This has led to many uncomfortable conversations or thoughts that we are ill-equipped to address  - because in this society we are not given the space or the permission to behave differently to other people. Our social structures expect and encourage us to behave in a way in which we can be easily controlled, easily manipulated, and easily distracted. We live in an attention economy: we have adverts, people and tasks queuing up, shouting at us for our attention every second of every day: we have lost the art of disconnecting from these and reconnecting to our selves and what truly brings us joy. Without the distractions of everyday life to interfere, one of the few upsides of this pandemic is that many individuals and leaders have awoken to the possibility that we do not have to live or do business in this way. 

This is, at its essence, a desire to come back to one’s self: it is a desire to return home. 

Not the four walls in which many of us have felt trapped at times since 2020, but to our souls, our core essence, our inner knowing. The distractions the world throws at us through technology, over-demanding jobs, social media, and through the pressure to achieve a particular definition of success, have to some extents been stripped away. The desire is to come home to what truly makes us healthy, wealthy and happy as determined by our own definition of success. with the world slowly opening back up to us and a sense of ‘normalcy’ returning, there is no better time to act on this desire to create the life and business you truly want and deserve to have.

But how, and where do we begin?

For starters, our bodies are cleverer than we give them credit for whilst we are so busy berating their failure to look the way society tells them they must, or when we are filling them with fast food and quick fixes for pain. Our bodies know what they need to bring health, wealth and happiness; it is just a language that we have lost over time. We do not know how to ask our bodies or our minds what they need and we do not know how to interpret the signs, signals, flags and indicators that they give us. If we have never seen a traffic light before, how would we know that red means to stop? If we have never heard the words ‘turn left’, how would we know where to go next? This signalling system sits within each of us. To begin our journey back to our stress-free selves, all we need is a way in which to access it.

The Wellbeing Circuit is the first stage of wisdom that unlocks the connection with your body, to your inner knowing, and to your true health, wealth and happiness. The truth is you do not have to stay within the confines of the societal expectations that surround you, or trapped by the situation in which you find yourself. To distinguish yourself as a true leader takes courage and a different approach, and the Foundational Principles you will learn through The Wellbeing Circuit and subsequent Blossoming Process can be applied to any person, in any situation, at any time, anywhere in the world. Once you know it you can never not know it. It gives you the ability, the knowledge and the choice that means you can return and reconnect to your own health, wealth and happiness at any time. It is designed to cut the cycle of sickness that exists within our businesses, our teams, our relationships with others and not least with ourselves.