Are you successful or flourishing?
Many high achievers (including myself) struggle with defining what we want to do with our careers or our lives, especially once we get to a certain level of success.
We are trained in school to deliver above expectations, and keep following the path because we assume that will lead to a good place.
— We get good grades in school to get into a good college.
— We work hard in college to get our first job.
— We deliver above expectations as a worker to get promoted.
But we never ask “What do _I_ want?” We are letting others define our success for us, and that “success” is often what will benefit them. Many companies set the bar higher and higher to extract every ounce of productivity from us, and then moving on once we have exhausted ourselves. I see so many people in Silicon Valley who are conventionally successful but miserable and burning out because they don’t know how they can keep sustaining the pace of work that brought them that success.
I imagine a world where more people spend their time on activities where they feel energized and aligned with their authentic selves. Instead of struggling to meet externally imposed obligations that lead to overwhelm and often burnout, they would create more energy and aliveness in how they spend their days. I’ve been using the term flourishing to describe this state, one where they have so much life energy that they spread it by inspiring others to flourish as well.
But we do have to live in the society as it is today, even if we hope for something different. If we embrace our own flourishing without considering what will bring conventional success, we are creating art, but we may be struggling from a financial perspective.
So that’s my dream – that more people can find the intersection between success and flourishing, where they are energized and excited by how they spend their time while also earning enough to support themselves.
I’d love to hear your experiences with flourishing and any examples you may have of people living that dream.