Aspire Magazine: Inspiration for a Woman's Soul.(TM) June/July 2020 Aspire Magazine FULL Issue | Page 20

...success has to do with having a purpose in life, a goal, a vision, a dream that lights you up…something that makes you want to spring out of bed in the morning. slightly different than any of them. I share the three keys here. First, I believe that success has to do with having a purpose in life, a goal, a vision, a dream that lights you up…something that makes you want to spring out of bed in the morning. Success to me doesn’t necessarily even have to do with achieving that goal or dream but simply picking a dream that’s worthy of you, that uses your God-given talents, that make your heart sing—and you start moving towards it. The late great Earl Nightingale, one of the fathers of New Thought said that “success is the progressive realization of a worthy idea or goal.” In other words…Success is a journey, not a destination. If we defined success by the moment of achievement, then we would be living these sorry lives waiting for that moment to arrive. Then we’d experience that moment and soon it would be over and the glow would be gone. In fact, research has shown that when people achieve something that they believed was going to make them feel successful like having a best-selling book or getting the part in the movie or receiving a big promotion, over 75% said that they felt either disappointed or even depressed soon after because the thrill of the journey was over. If your success were predicated on arriving at a destination, you might have the same type of experience my dear friend and business partner of many years, Marci Shimoff had when she thought she would feel successful when she became an author rock star. Marci often tells the story of how, for as long as she could remember, she had wanted to be a bestselling author and renown speaker. She shares that she was “born with existential angst” and “had never been a happy camper” and thought the achievement of this goal would bring her the fulfillment and self-acceptance she was longing for. Her dream came true one day in 1996 when Chicken Soup for the Women’s Soul soared to the top spot on the NY Times bestseller list and she was speaking to a group of 5,000 at the Hyatt Hotel in Chicago. She said that she had received a standing ovation and then signed over 3000 books. The promoters had to hire a masseuse to massage her hand every few minutes so she could keep signing!! Everything she had dreamed of had become a reality…. And when the last book was signed and the last congratulations were spoken, she went upstairs to her room, which happened to be the presidential suite. As she looked 20 www.AspireMAG.net | June / July 2020