Success is Highlighted by Our Personal Interpretations, not by Traditional Norms or Conventions
- Rachelle Innocent
- Jul 22
- 3 min read
If you asked five people what success means to them, you’re likely to get five different responses.
Despite our personal convictions on what success means to us personally, the majority would qualify success in broader terms more or less the same. Whether that be by equating success to recognition, wealth, or status, most of us were raised to believe that success is based on what we can see, with little to no regard on how success feels.
How we feel about our own pursuit of success, makes all the difference in how we perceive the outcomes.
It’s the difference between a lawyer who finds purpose in their practice, and a doctor whose many accomplishments couldn’t wash away the misery they feel, each time they start a shift.
Many of us learn later on in life, for many too late, that how we felt about our own success carries far greater weight than any external judgments and expectations ever could.
Aligning to your purpose is worth the unmet expectations and disappointments. What others may perceive as failure, is simply your process. What others may think of as being a hobby, might just be your purpose.
Success and alignment are mutually inclusive.
Someone who attains material success without also having love and passion for what they’re doing will be the first to tell you it is short-lived. The true driver of long-term persistence, and of consistency, is the intrinsic reward received when you invest your energy in bringing your vision to life. Full stop.
If vision is substituted for expectation, trying to satisfy the expectations that others have of you is not a strong enough motivator for continued and sustainable success. In that, it will not be enough for the success you are driving towards to feel meaningful, purposeful, and fulfilling.
No amount of positive affirmation can keep someone rooted in misalignment without adverse impacts to their sense of morale, growth, and emerging sense of identity.
So, lean in to the challenge of defining success by your own terms.
Recognize that others might see failure when you seized an opportunity for growth that rubs agains the grain of convention. That experience gave you endurance and resilience that the status quo wouldn't know how to offer.
Others might be caught in the challenges, pitfalls... already feeling defeated by the stark odds of them attaining their desired achievement, but you’re too busy blazing your path forward.
The loudest of the critics couldn’t walk a mile in your shoes. Let alone a day or a year in your skin. Keep your focus. There is so much self-discovery and so much inner-mastery to gain, just by rising to the occasion. Mute the outside noise, and let the pursuit of meaning and fulfillment bring about the success you’re looking for, working for, and will attain with your continued time and commitment.
Success translates in any one of the millions of definitions that we’ve personally and collectively witnessed. Do not let someone’s version of success drown out your own sense of what it means to you.
In all cases, success has always been more about the journey than it ever was about the destination.
So long as you keep pushing and you keep trying… nothing will keep you from shining.
Remember, every choice you make in alignment with your purpose is a representation of success in the making.
Have the audacity to make it your own.
Comments