A Manifesto for Women Redefining Success

WHEN IT’S TIME FOR A NEW AGENDA

Photo by Venti Views on Unsplash

When women re-define success a lot of things will change.

Because success is so much more than the acquisition of checkmarks and accomplishments.

Susan Doerksen Castro

If you stop and listen, you will feel within you the birth of a movement, because we are uneasy with how things are. 

We may be “successful” as it’s defined today, but we don’t feel successful.

As women, we have a collective knowing, that while we may all “look” successful and appear to have our “shit together”, that there is so much more to success than what is on the surface.

While tangible success matters, we believe we need a wider, more diverse, heart-felt understanding of what is “success” and now, more than ever is the time to yield to a new way of being successful, one that starts on the inside and informs and transforms our outward success. 

It’s time for a new agenda. Yours. Ours.

This movement is growing among women — just like you — who are re-defining success, and re-aligning their choices to their deepest values and longings for a new way.

If you’re yearning for a new way, but don’t quite know where to start or what this new way or new form of success will look like, this Manifesto is for you.

Spend time with these principles and know they can be trusted. Embrace them, and they will reside with you, to give shape to this new future.

The Manifesto for Women Redefining Success

One | See mainstream success for what it is, and what it is not.

We are awake to the distortions and illusions of mainstream success. We acknowledge the undercurrent of beliefs that say: “This is what it means to be successful, and if, and only if you have lived out These Beliefs, adopted These Habits and have checked off all The Boxes, only then will you be successful.” We choose to unsubscribe from the mono-definition of What Is Mainstream Success, including its trappings and seductions and hold on to only what of the mainstream definition is true for us. 

Two | Define your version of success.

We define and re-define what success means to us and allow our unique expression to be just right. We understand that our version of success is ever-evolving, just as we, as women, are ever evolving, expressing and contributing. Success is not a static state. It matters that we honor our own expression of success and live it fully; in doing so we illuminate new possibilities for other women, our children, families, communities and the broader context. 

Three | Success flows from and through self.

We are fluent in the language of our needs and meet them with intention. As we do, we are more centered and able to generate our version of success. We remember that all humans have needs and know with an inner certainty that as we care for ourselves well that we overflow and are more attuned to the needs of others. We are courageous in identifying and interrupting patterns of burnout, over-work, self-sacrifice and numbing on behalf of learning and modeling more sustainable ways of living and working. 

Four | Practice whole self health.

We are whole. And we care for our whole selves; body, mind, heart and spirit. We are not broken, nor are we machines in need of fixing, rather we are akin to unfolding buds, already whole and complete. We choose life affirming practices that nurture our entirety and opt out of systems and practices that affirm that unless we look a certain way, only then we are good enough. You are already enough.

Five | Success is (also) a journey.

Success is more than the arrival at a destination or quest to achieve and accomplish big goals set to be arrived at in the future. We embrace a belief that success is also about moments and the daily journey of our lives. It’s a precious experience, with milestones, and we learn to create and be in the successes of the present moment. We abandon the hustle and find a pace that suits us and honors our journey.

Six | Success is (also) on the inside.

Joy, ease, spaciousness, flow. These states also matter. We fully embrace our desire to experience success within ourselves while also being grateful for tangible manifestations of success. Both our inner and outer worlds matter; the two are essential and inseparable. We honor that we are women who feel deeply, have values and value, have both darkness and light within us and we create the capacity to bring this interior experience alive with curiosity, compassion and courage so it too can manifest and inform our external success. 

Seven | Success is rhythmic and regenerative.

We hold a seasonal and rhythmic view of productivity, and honor our inherent cyclical and creative selves. We are open and curious about how to personally and professionally learn and apply ways of living, working and contributing that allow us to do and be in sustainable, regenerative ways. We invite rest, ease, hope, the collective and our own understanding of the spiritual guides that exist to support us all the while debunking an extractive approach to success that depletes rather than nourishes us all.

Eight | Celebrate different expressions of success.

We cultivate new eyes, ears and hearts to discover how else success can be expressed and find delight in new forms and possibilities. All the while, we remain awake to the power and privilege we may hold. We embrace our power, knowing that greater outcomes and a healthier expression of this power can and must influence success beyond ourselves. We desire to live, love and lead in new ways that help us realize a world where all of us discover success.

Nine | Success exists within and because of The Collective.

We uphold community and living and work in mutually supportive ways. We allow our gifts and talents to emerge more fully and boldly all the while relaxing our self-perceived insufficiencies and insecurities. This is possible because we are confident in our areas of genius and joy, knowing that others have their own oft-complimentary talents. Success is newly measured by the strength of our webs of interdependence and the extent to which we create ways of being “in it together. 

Ten | Success doesn’t mean we have all the answers.

As The Collective allows new expressions of success to emerge, we celebrate what IS coming into form because we gave space to something that didn’t exist before. We develop new capacities to listen, to welcome the mystery, to relax our need for certainty and “a plan” and we honor our wisdom, experience and unique perspectives as a more than good enough recipe to re-imagine the success we’re all longing for. We know that just because we don’t see a new way in front of us, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t already exist in our hearts, imagination and co-created efforts. We choose to be pioneers of a new way!

=============

In service of you and the success you’re creating,

Susan xo