Are you successful? Are you winning at life? The daily grind of house work/monkeys/work feels big and icky and there’s a tantalising feeling that there’s a better way to do stuff or, more importantly, that I’ve been focusing on the wrong things.
Now, I will never be the type to give it all up and live in a yurt. I’m never going to weave my own knickers from wheat. Despite that, there must be a different way to do the life thing that gives me more fizzy feelings.
I think the first step is to look at what you think of as successful. There’s the checklist of relationship, kids, career and home that can feel mandatory. Well, I’ve done that and I still feel off kilter. One of my problems is that I love my job but a career isn’t 9 to 5 and however organised and efficient you are it can bleed into every area of your life. It’s not the work, it’s the positioning and the politics. You need to keep up with the working Jones, you need to have career goals and aspirations. Simply being awesome at what you do isn’t enough, you must want to do more.
Enough with the frigging more already! Mike Mills of R.E.M. said he was successful the moment he didn’t have to get a day job. That was a good 10 years before they signed to Warner Brothers and made it big. There’s a lesson here. So I’m redefining my version of success. Success for me is being able to do a good days work to the best my ability and being proud of it. Success for me is coming home, snogging my husband and actually engaging with my Mum and the monkeys. Success for me is being to able to wear trainers every day. Success for me is being to express myself on my terms rather than complying with corporate standards. Success for me is spending as much time as possible with my dog.
I have no idea where my new definition will take me (isn’t that fun!) or whether the only change is in my head but that’s good enough. And looking at that list, I’m successful already. Fizzy!