Five Ways to Experience Success Now
HOW TO BECOME SUCCESSFUL SOONER
The deeper the roots the greater the fruits.
~ Unknown
In our drive to be successful we learn to want and acquire more. To chase success and “hustle” for it.
This drive limits our ability to appreciate the success that is happening in the moment.
Part of redefining success includes bring into awareness and developing skills to enjoy success sooner. To notice what is exactly right as we create the life that matters to us.
The essence of this article is to remind us to embrace the both/and of success. Both/and says we have goals yet to be accomplished AND that there are lots of ways that success is abundant now.
Success isn’t a date in the future, success is a state of being.
To envision this, think of a tree — perhaps like the one in the photo above, or one right outside your home. Notice how it is physically able to reach towards the sunshine, and stretch out it’s branches beyond itself. AND its “success” is also very much about rooting in right where it is, nowhere else to go but downwards..
Let’s be more like trees and consider these five ways to become successful sooner.
1) Learn your Past : Present : Future Moment Attention Ratio
This is about noticing where your attention resides. Is it in the past, present or future?
On average my own is about 10% : 25% : 65%
It’s a guess, not an exact science. This is about being curious about where your attention resides.
And when we start to learn this it informs where our attention most often is, and therefore, where we may usually be scanning for success.
For myself, with so much of my attention on the future, it’s not a surprise that it’s hard to see success in the present.
If you want to be move into the present, it’s useful to connect to your body to shift your attention. Your body is always only ever in the present. Use your body’s senses to shift your attention to the present when you’re on a walk outdoors. Enjoy a good belly laugh. And shift your attention to where you believe will most help you access success now.
To be more like a tree is to appreciate what’s going on in the present.
2) Remember you’re (also) on a journey of success.
I’m a recovering success-is-a-destination seeker. I’ve always loved the thrill of the (goal/success) chase. I love making the plan and my planner. I love the clarity that comes with focus. Let me strategize and see the big picture. Dreaming about future success is fun.
And part of this way, is to set up “rewards” that I am only get once I’ve accomplished X Thing in the future. So essentially I reward myself for the achievement of success in the future. The journey is barely noticed.
Yet, if I recall the road trips taken in childhood, it was always the journey that I remember. On the journey was giggles with my sister, singing, family games playing “I spy”, treats at the stores along the way. Yes, there were plenty of challenges too — holding your pee because the closest washroom was still 20 kms away (and you didn’t want to stop by the side of road), fights with the same sister, feeling nauseous or too hot and “are we there yet”?
We can work at making the journey successful too.
Back to the tree. On its journey, we can notice incremental progress. We can check for buds. Or appreciate that a small, thin branch still holds the weight of a bird, nest or a squirrel even though not fully formed.
Appreciating the journey is more than slowing down, it’s about accessing the energy and enough-ness of the moment. It’s the tiniest rest in a long day, it’s about honoring you and your progress along the way.
3) Scan for what’s juicy right now.
As in what is juicy or spicy or zesty or interesting right now.
If chasing the future and her goals and plans holds a lot of juice and adrenalin for you, notice what’s alive now to help you feel this kind of energy now.
Think, that first sip (or seven) of your morning coffee. A kiss on the cheek. The freshness of the early morning air. That deep soulful connection you have with your client. Favorite tunes cranked on your drive. Bedtime hugs.
These moments are small but are the evidence that you’re alive and that life is great right now too. They hold a fleeting and raw energy of success too.
In these moments, imagine yourself as the tree, allowing your roots to go down where you are. Settle in and allow the juiciness to course through you. These are the fertile moments where roots go down easier into the soil.
4) Learn the Art of Powerful Presence
Pick a moment you want to be fully in this week. If presence is a tricky skill for you, no worries, it’s enough to be powerfully present with folding the laundry or the first moments of a meeting. Even washing your hands can be an act of powerful presence.
Make this moment priority.
Imagine bringing all your energy and power to this very moment.
And plan to remove distractions and give yourself permission to be wholly in it. Clear the desk, turn off all your notifications and make the moment sacred.
In this way you actively create successful moments now for yourself. And notice what happens when your intention is fully rooted in this moment.
As I look at the trees outside my home, they are powerfully present. I can feel their dependability and their reliability. They are fully here, now.
5) Honor the energy that lives in one future based goal.
I know you’ve got plans in the future.
This is a good, good thing.
It’s even better when you can appreciate this about yourself and learn more about this energy, what fuels it, what interrupts it, what happens when you’re in flow with it, and how it teaches you about yourself in your pursuit of success.
This drive you have in you is powerful, it pulls you, and you have an unbelievable amount of focus that comes online in its pursuit.
Know even more fully why this pursuit is worthwhile, and go after what you pursue consciously. Reach for the energy of the sun, stretch out your branches, create shade.
And discover how this future oriented part of you is rooted in today.
May you experience all the gifts of your success now.