What have you accomplished?

Are you ok with your achievements?

What do you think of when you see the word

achievement?

Do you think of awards?

Promotions?

Trophies?

Raises?

Things that are tangible?

Something you can hold 

or see on a piece of paper?

Do you fall into the trap of

viewing success

 as something 

someone tells you 

that you have accomplished,

or achieved?

I think it is quite easy to fall into that

way of thinking.

These types of achievements 

are based on someone else's 

qualifications

of what success and achievement is.

How do we allow ourselves to base the entire 

gamut of our successes 

on what someone else tells us?

Yes..

Promotions, trophies, 

raises, awards..

These are all fantastic achievements,

and should not be taken for granted.

But, are they our greatest achievements?

Are they truly what 

we should use to qualify our life?

If you look at my life,

I don't have many of those types of achievements

or successes. 

Those kinda ended after high school...

But, I am still successful.

I have still achieved tremendous things

that I am very proud of.

I am a good person.

I care about people.

I enjoy helping others.

I like to make people laugh, especially my friends,

who mean the absolute world to me.

I have cut out alcohol from my lifestyle.

I have successfully mastered gluten-free baking.

At 30, I am definitely in the best shape I've ever been in.

I successfully survived my 20's. 

That one deserves a high five!

I believe in fairness and doing the right thing. 

I want everyone to be happy.

These aren't viewed as a "success" or an "achievements" by many

but..

they don't have to be, and they certainly

should be seen as meaningful and worth praise.

Life can make us cold. 

It can harden us.

We find ourselves comparing our 

achievements and successes

(or lack of them)

to others and we come up short.

How unfair of us to do that!

That doesn't really make sense, does it?

We are taught that we are unique and special

and then we give that away

 to ascribe to someone else's qualification of what

special is.

I know that this must be the same for others,

but it makes me feel sad.

I feel like I'm not being authentic.

I get frustrated and caught up in meeting 

the standards of others and it just

becomes impossible.

And I have definitely found myself

walking through life

feeling a little less 

sparkly.

It's not to say that we should blow off 

meeting other's expectations of us,

but we need to also

validate our innate need to 

meet our own.

We can't please everyone. 

We won't get all of the awards.

We can't succeed at everything.

But trying is a success.

Putting effort and intention toward our endeavors 

is the very make up of what builds success.

We are, at the core, successful.

How does it make you feel when you help someone

who needs it?

Proud? Happy? Like you accomplished something?

Yeah, because you did!

These are the things we rarely acknowledge as being extraordinary.

And yet, these are the things that,

I believe,

make us the people we are.

A resume is great and stuff...

But it's who we become that is the true success in life.

So, if you also survived your 20's,

high five.

And if you aren't quite there yet,

keep on keeping on.

Love,

liz xo