Is success in achievement or in doing?

Most people I meet are target driven. Whether it is the target of an impending holiday, the target of raising the children through the leaving cert, the target of making the team, the target of growing the business, the target of paying the bills etc.... etc....

So we should not be surprised to see Success equally measured against targets. The flash new car, the holiday travelling Route 66, the mortgage paid of, the dream job, the professional sports career, the children in college, the Million Euro turnover in business etc.... etc....

And yet....

I meet so many of these 'successful' people who are not happy. They want more. They want bigger, better, easier, more relaxed, quieter, promoted, further, faster. And when they achieve, they already want something else.

The moment they arrive at a destination it has become a mere stopping point for the next want.

So they never arrive, and never will. Yet there is always a want to arrive. And that's where the system breaks down.

If you go back to all the targets we mentioned before, you will see the achievements itself are all brief moments in time. As mentioned before we are already thinking of the next moment before we arrive at this one. Let's now look at what happens to the time we spend en route to those moments! Actually most people I talk to mention 'have to' a lot.

I have to study. I have to work harder on the business. I can't make the party as I have to go training tonight. I have to make them understand the leaving Cert is vital. I have to work overtime to get that project out the door.

I have to, I have to, I have to. How does that sound when you hear it said 3 times in a row? Does it sound like a chore, something you are not really looking forward to?

And therein lies the anti climax. You hate getting to the point you 'have to' get to in order to be successful and then when you get there it never lives up to the expectation.

There is an alternative I know of. It consists of finding what you love doing by trying loads of new stuff in your life. When you do find something you love doing, immerse your self in it. Do more of what you love. Then make a decision of what direction you want to go with it. Let that decision exist on its own. And then do every day what you love to the best of your ability.

What if we measured success in doing more and more of what we truly love? Every moment in every day that we do what we love, we are successfully living. How does that sound?

Honestly, what does that daily success sound like compared to a success driven by brief moments of material or positional gains? What if by doing what we love each day, we got better at it each day? Just 1% better. That's more than 3.5 times as good in 1 year! Like it?

I know what I choose. I am removing goals and targets from my life and replacing them with decisions based on what I love. Then I set the direction I want to take these decisions to. The fun and living is in implementing these decisions on a daily basis doing more of what I love.

That's how I got to 14 Marathons so far this year. I am loving my running that much every day that running more than the target of 12 in 12 became a natural result. Unforced, in the flow. Out of love. In each day, in each moment. This weekend I'm running the Eddie Murphy Memorial Marathon in Sixmilebridge on Sunday for number 15. Lovely people, lovely event!

What about you? What do you love doing? What if you became 1% better at that each day from now on? How would that change your live in 1 year?

Have a wonderful weekend filled with stuff you truly love doing and is good for you!

Patte xx