What does the word success really mean? When I was still in school success was very easy to define, after all it was right there in the grade book. But, since my transition from student to professional I have felt like I no longer have any clear sightline of success, it just seems to be some shadowy figure far off in the distance. The illustration of the 'Iceberg Illusion' has helped me bring success back into focus for me. In reality what this has done is help me readjust my definition of what success means for me. What I have come to find is that I have multiple success arenas in my life currently.
There is my work success, which currently constitutes growing relationships within my new department, at a new hospital, in a new city. This arena has quite the few ups and downs right now, definitely a learning spot for me right now. Next, I have my personal life arena. This is currently occupied by the struggles of learning to share my home space now that my significant other has moved in with me.... boys can be so gross sometimes! I probably won't feel any semblance of success in this arena until I'm old and grey, ha. My last success arena right now is this blog. It's super easy to misconstrue success in this arena with the number of likes or reads I get, but actually success for me here is just being able to be passionate about writing and sharing with others. There is so much that goes into all three of these success icebergs that I am building right now.
The great thing about success is that I get to define it for me under my own terms. Sure people can see some of what I'm doing and make their own judgements, but they don't see all the really cool things that are actually going on beneath the surface. The tricky part with success is not judging the success of others based on how you define success for yourself. I can be super honest here and say that I'm not great at this at all, but it's something I am striving towards. My new goals for the time being include 1.) self check-ins to celebrate my successes, no matter how small they may be and 2.) awareness check-ins to make sure I am supporting those around me in their successes too.
- K
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