‘I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my
chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble … The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.’
(Helen Keller)
During the last few weeks, I had many conversations about what success really is.
Many change makers that I’m talking with want to create a big positive impact. When asked how they know they have been successful with this, the answers often become a bit vague or mention distant goals of their organisation. These definitions don’t provide a lot of energy in everyday work.
Feeling successful today creates momentum
If you are passionate about changing the world for the better, it can be difficult to notice whether your work is having the intended impact. Better understanding the nuances of what actually effects change makes a big difference to your sense of purpose and satisfaction at work.
For system impact, the definition of success is really important. Leaders who fail to define the impact they want are getting frustrated because, subconsciously, they want to have a really big positive impact. And this means they might fail to notice or see the small, incremental steps that lead to that big impact.
In their day-to-day life, they're not really seeing that they're making progress or achieving anything. This is because they never really defined the small steps or details of what make up the bigger picture of the impact they want to see. They might have a big vision, but they have never really defined the more specific details of the vision and how to get there. If they do this, ultimately, with each step towards their goal, they will feel a bit more successful. And each little bit of success leads to a sense of being truly impactful.
A focus on positive impact as an end result can cause a lot of unnecessary stress and frustration during the process of delivering it. You have to manage your own expectations of what success is.
Success takes many, many small steps.
Define your successful impact
It is a deep-seated, innate human need — wanting to contribute positively to other people and the larger environment. Having a positive impact, and, thus, leaving a positive legacy, is on the ‘to-achieve’ list of many leaders. Yet not many take the time to truly reflect on what success would look and feel like for them.
Exploring and defining what positive impact is for you and why it really matters to you will increase your awareness of what success is for you. You become liberated from just having to unconsciously follow outside expectations. Your new freedom of choice might not always be easy, but it puts you back in the driver seat of what type of leader you want to be.
Noticing and accepting that not all of your impact will be immediately visible, and tangible will help you to stay patient and calm when events do not play out in your favour. These might just be a temporary setback that, put into the bigger picture, might even have some positives. Many, many small steps create big impact — eventually. Just keep going.
By investing time in your definition of what positive impact is, you will learn a lot about all the systems you are part of and where your circle of influence ends — for now. This creates more awareness of how any context can support or hinder your results, your wellbeing and your performance. It also becomes more obvious where you can invest time and energy to push the boundaries, and where it might make sense to do nothing.
Impact definition is part of managing your and other people’s energy.
Knowing what impact, you desire will give you and all the people you lead a clear direction on where to focus your energies to create successes that you can feel and enjoy. Frustrations are reduced. You will all have higher levels of satisfaction with work achievements.
A focus on positive impact will make a valuable contribution to your legacy. It brings you one step closer to becoming a wise leader who channels the world’s energy and flow with the aim to be a force for good.
To avoid more suffering in the world, wise leaders need to take a more conscious approach to what they stand for and what type of positive impact they want to create. If you want to contribute to a shift that ensures people and planet are not only surviving but thriving, remember that all your choices and every decision create an impact.
A renewed focus on the natural world as a source of energy is vital for your sustainable success. It supports you to successfully create positive impact for you, for other people and for the whole world.
So, what is your own, very personal definition of success?
Naturally yours,
Ingrid
P.S. If you’d like to define your success and impact definition further, I’ve got 1 spot in my 1:1-Naturally-Successful-mentoring program left for the next 3 months. Just reply to this email to set up a complementary discovery session.