What I wish I had learned sooner about success
Written by Alex Poeter
When it comes to creating professional success, most “how-to manuals” are based on the belief that “it’s all about the doing.” Core principles often include “the harder we work, the greater our chances of achieving professional success” or “creating success is all about doing things in a certain way.” And while it’s certainly true that reaching our goals requires discipline and persistence, I think there is much more to it.
I spent years experimenting with “success principles'' that can be found in the most popular books on this subject. But the one principle that I’ve found to be most effective wasn’t in any of the books. Here is what I’ve found.
I believe we all have a purpose or calling. There is something we’re good at and that we enjoy doing. And not only that, we have skills and talents that allow us to create value for others. In my experience, living into our true purpose and potential is about matching our skills, abilities and talents with where they’re most needed in the world – and in a way that brings us joy. Experiencing joy in our work is important because it helps us to remove resistance and thereby allows us to fully utilize our skills and talents to create professional success.
If we align with our deeper sense of purpose by using our skills and talents to create value and serve others, our purpose will guide us towards its fulfillment. However, in order to receive this inner guidance, we have to keep listening deeply and we have to keep getting out of our own way.
And that’s where the principle comes in that I wished I had known all along: Creating professional success is not just about “doing things,” it’s actually more about “allowing our purpose to lead the way.” By creating space so that our purpose can keep unfolding, we’ll start to notice more and more guidance in the form of new ideas, support and resources showing up so that we can achieve our goals. Here are some questions I’d invite you to reflect on to help you “hear” the guidance of your purpose:
What do you think your purpose, or life mission, is?
How can you use your skills and talents to create a positive impact and value for others?
Where might you be getting in the way or resisting the unfolding of your purpose?
I want to invite you to spend some time reflecting on what you think you’re being called to do, especially within the context of what’s going on in our world these days. Can you see the direction you're being pointed towards? What if you allowed yourself to trust in what you’re feeling guided to do?