Do you remember the Mary Tyler Moore show? I remember watching it in reruns when I was younger; my favorite part was the end of the theme song where she throws her hat in the air and the song says “You’re gonna make it after alllll….”
And I thought, yes! Yes, I do want Mary to make it! Throw that hat up high, Mary! Throw it! Throw it good!
But then as I got a little older, I thought to myself, well, what will it look like when Mary finally makes it? Why wasn’t what she already had enough? From what I could see, she had a fulfilling career, caring co-workers, fun friends to hang out with, her own apartment… from my perspective as a young girl (and later as a young woman), it seemed to me that Mary had already found the things most of us think about when we hear the phrase “making it.”
It’s a funny phrase, “making it.” When we talk about success, we often say that people who have achieved their goals have “made it” – much the same way that travelers on a trip have “made it” to their chosen destination. But is that really the best way to think about success – as something that we only experience once we arrive at a certain place?
For that matter, how do we even know where that place really is, or what it will look like when we get there?
That’s the hard part about discussing an idea like success; we take pride in telling our children that they can grow up to be whatever they want to be, but we have a harder time talking to them about the idea of success, and asking them what they think it should look like.
And because of that reluctance to talk about success, often we end up seeing “success” the same way that most other people see it: financial security, a healthy family, a thriving career, the freedom to do whatever you want. These are all fine goals to strive for, to be sure, but when will we know when the striving is done? When will we take that moment to congratulate ourselves for those successes we’ve already achieved? Sadly, for a lot of people that moment never comes.
And I think that moment doesn’t come for them because they understand the idea of “making it” like arriving at a destination, forgetting all the choices they made during the trip to get there. Every decision we make, every choice we choose, every relationship we build – we determine our own success by remembering that our purpose is to live the life we were meant to live… and that by doing so we are achieving success little by little, each and every day.
So let’s redefine the idea of “making it” and success. Let’s choose to redefine success as something we choose to experience every day with our actions, rather than as some far-off goal that we’ll someday reach. If we do that… well, just imagine how much more joy we’ll experience feeling that sense of success every single day!
And if we did that, if we chose to find success and joy in the choices we make today, I bet there would be a lot more hats thrown in the air. And that? Would be a very good thing.
If you are ready to be conscious of what you are ‘making’ then join us for this cycle of Phase In where we are addressing the subconscious and unconscious blocks to success and joy. We kick off on February 14, and registration closes on February 16. Click here to register, embracing the transformation you’ve been longing for!
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