What does success mean to you?

my personal "top 5" keys to success

​This past week, many events have all come together to make me stop and ponder my personal definition of success.  

​In a podcast by Fleece & Harmony where Jennifer and Kim interviewed Janet Ogilvie of Green Gable Alpacas, they discussed their former “corporate” lives and how very different their lives are now in rural PEI.  One comment was that visitors to the Island want what we have here – living a simple life and enjoying it.  Understanding that we may not always be happy (life always has challenges it throws our way) but we are content.

​Boy – can I relate to that!  I spent many years “away” – living in Ottawa, Toronto and Saskatoon.  I met some wonderful people who I know are true friends to this day.  I travelled all across this beautiful country as part of my job and lived my life in suits and heels.  There were so many aspects of that life that I enjoyed….but I would often wake up in the morning with fingernail marks in the palms of my hands from having clenched my fists all night long.

I read a recent comment by an American psychiatrist, Dr. Srini Pillay, who wrote that pursuing creative and active pastimes helps make people more successful.  We are so often focused on the “must dos” of business life that we forget to take time for ourselves.  I know I have to often remind myself that I am in a much better place emotionally, physically and mentally if I take some time to be creative.  How can I consider it to be “wasting time” when it does so much good for me?

​The last thing that got me really thinking about success was a comment by a “true blue” in Saskatoon.  She wrote that I was her “favourite dream chaser” and that I “inspired her to be everything she wanted to be”.  That just rocked me back on my heels!  And it really started me on a path about the definition of success.

​For some people, success means you are happy.  Success is seldom based on income alone.  It’s more about having a dream, setting goals and having a sense of joy in each step taken to achieve those goals.  We have to set our goals on what we desire, not what someone else wants for us.  It’s staying true to yourself, to your values.

​For me, it is creating a sense of community.  I support and promote the wonderful local goodies here on the Island – from food to wool to handcrafted items created by local artisans.  I love the community of knitters.  I’m always astounded how strangers from all corners of the world can come together for a workshop and, at the end of a couple of hours, are laughing and sharing stories like long lost friends.  I love sharing the gift of knitting that my grandmother shared with me.

​I was chatting with a couple who live in a very small rural community in Ontario and who love to visit PEI as it feels “like home” to them.   We got to having a bit of a laugh when folks ask “But what do you DO here in the winter?” or “You live here all year round?”  Yes, many shops and restaurants are closed.  Winters can sometimes be daunting.

​So what do we do?  Get together with friends – to play music, to knit, to volunteer, to participate in community theatre.  I personally love the silence of a winter’s evening – no traffic, no horns honking, no tires squealing.  I love the first time I hear crickets and frogs singing in the spring, or that aroma of freshly mown grass.  The quieter months are when I can let my creative energies flow – new ideas for products, patterns, partnerships.

​We concluded that you either get it or you don’t.  You either intrinsically get that sense of peace and contentment that life here brings or you don’t – and that’s OK too.  If you don’t “get it”, you would not want to live here year-round.  You would not be content.  And if you are not content, you will never truly be happy.  And if you are not content, not happy, then how can you truly be successful?

So – these are my personal “top 5 keys to success”.

1.  Follow your dreams. 

2.  Work towards making them a reality.

3.  Live your own authentic life.

4.  Take time for creative endeavours that inspire you.

5.  Appreciate the small gifts that life gives you every day.
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Simple, I know – but it is for me the definition of success.