Success Defined
It has been a while since I posted, but it is time to get back to sharing my thoughts regularly as we start to prepare for our global journey in early 2015. As a family we are so excited about this trip and part of the foundation starts today. At 2:25 this afternoon I will head to the airport to pick up Karley Walek, the teacher we have hired to join us on our journey. Karley is probably as excited as we are, which is so cool. We are all preparing for the trip of a lifetime.
While we start to really plan for this trip, I continue on my personal journey of discovery. I have spent the past 3 to 4 years of my life searching, searching for something. I wasn’t sure what it was, but over the past 9 months, since delivering my first TEDx Talk, I believe I have figured out what it is I have been searching for. I have been searching for a new definition of success. Back in 2011 Michael Gerber, the author of The E-Myth, challenged me to redefine success and I told him that my definition of success worked just fine for me. About two years ago I decided that I didn’t need to redefine success, that I needed to be significant, but that is not true. Being significant is part of my new definition of success.
I just started reading Arianna Huffington’s book, Thrive, and she talks about this specific issue. Success needs to include more than money and power, and I agree! As a human being our success is not defined by the things we have, it is not defined by our accomplishments nor our goals. I believe that true success in life is directly tied to being significant, working every day to leave this planet better than we found it, to be part of something greater than ourselves. We came to this planet with nothing and we will leave with nothing. How we act while we are here is what matters.
My travels to Africa, Central America and Southeast Asia have taught me so much, but my best teachers are our two children and the hundreds of youth that I have had the privilege to work with over the past few decades in my volunteer work. I believe that we do need to redefine success as a culture.
I went to a meditation on Wednesday evening and met two individuals that said they wanted to start a movement to redefine success and they started using these new age terms. I told them if they really wanted to start a movement then they needed to speak English, speak to people in a language that they can be heard by the masses.
In our culture we tend to define success in terms of achievement. Our whole lives were are taught to win, to go for the gold and take no prisoners! Over the past few years I have begun to not only question this definition, but I want to create a dialog that will allow the average person to understand what it is I am learning. I have had so many amazing teachers on my journey and now it is my turn to teach people what I have learned. I still have so much to learn myself, but this one lesson is something I need to share.
‘Til next time ……
Larry Kesslin 