change, decision-making, design, imagination

Step 362: Success and Value

“Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value.” ~ Albert Einstein

2011 is coming at us fast and furious, and I’m getting nervous. Nervous about ideas and plans that I’m putting into action. I’m starting to teach my own independent yoga classes on Sunday, January 30th. I’m starting a new Taproot Project as a Strategic Consultant for Bottomless Closet. I’m thinking about trips I’d like to take, classes that would help me improve some skills I have and gain others that I’ve never tried before. I’m working on some new writing projects and adding some new features to this blog to broadcast my message and enrich the content.

2011 will be my year to try on a lot of new ideas and see how they shape my life. I’m re-imagining just about every nook and cranny of my life, and then some. I’m adopting the mantra, “I’m going to give it a shot and see what happens.” Exciting, and a little daunting if I think about it too much, which I am likely to do several times a day.

What calms me down and talks me down off the ledge is the idea of focusing on value, not success. I’m done doing things that don’t add value, to my life or someone else’s. And it’s A-OK if it only improves the life of one single being. That will be enough. I’m done feeling like I must do A, B, and C. I’ll do any and all of them if it’s useful, if it makes a difference. If an activity doesn’t help me create a world that I’m proud of, then I’m just not doing it. I’ve paid my dues over and over and over again. Those dues have been settled. Success will be on my terms, and be inextricably linked to value that I can feel in my heart.

The image above can be found here.

4 thoughts on “Step 362: Success and Value”

  1. Christa –

    Based on your “give it a shot” concept, I thought you might like this….

    Why the Best Solutions Are Always Temporary
    http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2010/10/why-the-best-solutions-are-alw.html

    Of course, everything is temporary, you just have to use the right timescale. 🙂

    You might also like, if you haven’t found it already, some of the philosophies in Brooks Palmer’s Clutter Busting book and blog. It’s only partially about clutter, a lot of it is about change and how you select what’s in your life, including people, activities and thoughts. I really like his approach.

    Best,
    MJ

    Like

    1. Hi MJ! Thank you so much for these resources. I am going to check them out right away. So appreciate you thinking of me. Cheers!

      Like

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