What Contains Your Success?

They say that "no success is created in a vacuum." I've also heard that there is "no such thing as an overnight success" because "all overnight success is ten years in the making." It stands to reason that succeeding includes stepping into something that will contain us through the thick and thin. 
This week's reflection is about containers. As coaches, we hold space for others, and this provides a container for their success. What space are you holding for yourself? 

What Contains Your Success?
by: Laurel Elders

"Success is not perfection, it is preparedness."
​~ Note to Self
 As previously mentioned, each year I reflect on what I’ve accomplished, what I’ve learned, new pearls of wisdom gleaned from any challenges I faced, and what I wish to achieve in the new year.

For the last seven years, I’ve honored a personal tradition that helps me embody virtues in my life. For example, one year my virtue was “simplicity.” Everything I did that year, I looked at first through the eyes of simplicity. Simplicity became my container.

That year, my life began to flow with greater ease. Every year after, simplicity now comes with me, like a muscle I’ve built, and is now easy to use. I experienced how spending an entire year integrating a virtue into my way of being helps sustain the development I’ve accomplished.

We can also learn from the containers we choose.

As I lived through simplicity, I learned how simplifying is more efficient than over-complication. I learned simplicity is way more fun, and my work felt lighter, not taxing. I learned how to “work smarter, not harder.” I learned to let go of society’s maxim “you must work hard to succeed” and “no pain, no gain.” Neither were true. I was more successful that year and a happier version of myself.

This year, the word that found its way into my awareness is “alignment.”

This year is not going to be about making blind choices.  It is about taking any choice and finding alignment before proceeding. It is about living each day aligned with my values, my potentials, and my gifts. I look forward to seeing how this shapes the year and what I learn about myself, others, and the world.

With our quality of focus, we become a beacon for success.

With our quality of focus, we see, feel, touch, and experience life optimally.

With our quality of focus, we grow deeper roots.

As the saying goes, the deeper the roots, the better the fruits.

The irony? When we choose one quality to focus on, we empower other qualities to flourish as well. That virtue then becomes the fertilizer to the entire garden of our life.
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I invite you to adventure into your potential by choosing a virtue to focus on in 2022. What container can support you in success? How can you bring it with you?
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