Mind WELLBEING
REDEFINING success
As the landscape of our working lives changes beyond recognition, challenging our preconceptions of what’s necessary to ‘get on’ in life, it’s time to take a fresh look at what it means to truly prosper
writes Anna Lundeburg
Expert advice
Anna Lundberg is a coach and mentor helping professionals redefine success outside the nine to five. onestepoutside.com
Louise Buttler is the founder of Live Brave, providing on-demand fitness, nutrition and wellness expertise. livebrave.life
Dr Duana Welch is a coach and the author of the ‘Love Factually’ series of sciencebased dating books. lovefactually.co
If I were to ask you to define ‘success’, what would you say? Would you describe the corporate executive who has climbed the career ladder and now earns a seven-figure salary? The social entrepreneur, a renowned keynote speaker and bestselling author? Or the friend who seems so content with her life?
It might sound idealistic and privileged to spend time on the semantics of defining success. Most of us will go through our lives keeping busy, always working towards that next milestone, never stopping to think if it’s what we really want. But what happens when we don’t define what ‘success’ means to us?
Time to reappraise
There are moments in life that prompt us to question what truly matters – when we become parents, or lose a loved one. Or when global events trigger a rethink –a worldwide pandemic; the threat of war.
During the past two years, in many ways, we’ve had to lower our ambitions. Our health goals have focused on avoiding getting infected with Covid. At work, for many of us success has meant having a strong wi-fi signal for a meeting or being eligible for furlough. In family life, we’ve been trying not to kill each other while living and working together.