Success. What does it mean to you?

How will you know if you’ve “made it”?

Or, when will you finally “make it”?

I was in the company of a friend to Enugu State in November 2017. At the bus terminus, while waiting for the vehicle to fill up and take off, I glimpsed through one of the eBooks on my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 library.

Which author or title should I read now?

Hibernating in my glowing rectangle for several weeks past, Arianna Huffington’s Thrive came to mind.

From its first page, the riveting Thrive commenced with the author’s main themes.

Redefine what success means to you as an individual.
What does it mean to live the good life.
Yoir life’s objectives should not be just “to take your place in the world, but to change the world.”

The introduction ended with a call to action.

These are profound and paradigm-shifting ideas,.

And I said to myself, “Man, you are up to some heavy stuff here. You had better make out the time to really read it.” I read a few more pages and turned off my Moon Reader e-book app.

After that, most of the remaining traveling time was spent taking pictures of all interestingness encountered on that trip. There were four of us in the sardine-packed bus.

Going on at a leisurely but persistent pace, I’ve since finished the book, I actually chosed to read slowly even though I can read faster. Like a tasty bar of Swiss chocolate, you don’t savor or enjoy a good book by rushing through its pages.

These Thrive lessons have been keeping me company ever since. Make them yours as well.

Redefine success

The fundamental idea here is that success should not be defined by the metrics of mere material attainments, money, and power. According to the author, there is a third metric for defining true success.

Going beyond money and power, this Third Metric has these four pillars for its foundation.

Well-being,
Wisdom,
Wonder and
Giving.

The wrong definition of success always results in people suffering incalculable losses in terms of the price they pay at the end in terms of health, well-being, relationships, and happiness. To one and to all, these losses will continue to rise unless we wake up and start redefining and following through on what true success means and demands.

Five hours later we arrived at Nsukka town. From there, we proceeded to the village. Our stay there was just for the night. We returned safely back to Port Harcourt the following day.

8 lifelong lessons

Make room for wisdom, wonder, and giving. People who are genuinely thriving in their lives are those who have made room for well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving.
Live more, hyper-connect less. Don’t be too busy that you don’t have time to live. Hyperconnectivity of our digital era is often an unfulfilling version of true connection that can prevent us from being deeply connected with those closest to us including ourselves and our innermost beings where wisdom is found.
Prioritize your life or watch it slip through your grasp. Don’t wait until the occurrence of a tragedy or death before beginning to prioritize what matters most in your life. Those who fail to take necessary breaks to stop, ponder and wonder may just have life pass them by before they realize it.
Don’t substitute your wants for your real needs. Technology, while being able to give us what we want doesn’t always give us what we need. Over-reliance on these tools diminishes our self-awareness and the ability to listen. The power technology puts at our disposal often lowers the ability of people including executives to be empathetic. We’ve all seen it or been involved in it. Some, craving Instagram instafame, and Facebook clicks will rather take update shots instead of stepping out to offer help and relief to troubled or distressed victims.
Cultivate a healthy relationship with technology. Monitor and check how healthy your relationship is with technology and the associated social media tools. They can either help us to bear witness more powerfully or get more obsessively distracted as “Weapons of Mass Distraction” (WMD).
Don’t hinder your own happiness. So much of the time, what is standing between us and satisfaction is … us. Success doesn’t depend on getting every single thing right but instead relies on identifying a few key priorities and fashioning them into powerful levers.
Reinforce good deeds — take and give by the cultivation of compassion and empathy. The author reminds of the words of Dr. Ervin Staub, “Goodness like evil often begins in small steps.” In other words goodness and evil are self-reinforcing.
Stay connected with life’s true essence. In our quest for the upward rise on the ladder of worldly success, it is vital to stay connected to the essence of who we are by taking care of ourselves along the way and reaching out to others. Always take breaks to; stop, ponder and wonder. Life effectively slip from those who chose to do otherwise and by the time they realize it, it’s already too late. Life is soon over.

Now, over to you. How will you measure your success post-COVID-19 and going forward?

So much of the time, what is standing between us and satisfaction is … us.
Success doesn’t depend on getting every single thing right, but instead relies on identifying a few key priorities and fashioning them into powerful levers.

Goodness like evil often begins in small steps.
~ Dr Ervin Staub

SOURCE:
Copyright by © Arianna Huffington; Thrive — The Third Metric to Defining Success And Creating A Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder; Harmony Books, New York, 2014

First published in Medium by the author,

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