23-023 Possible #2

Continuing with Principle #4 from Jack Canfield’s “The Success Principles” entitled “Believe it’s Possible”, I set the intention today to believe it’s possible for me to present helpful intuitive readings on my youtube channel. While coloring I felt the push to “yes, do it!”. Then I hear this whiney side of me that goes through a litany of excuses: how am I going to do it? what if it doesn’t work? blah blah blah.

Somewhere in the middle of coloring, I began pondering the idea of success. Canfield’s book is offering all kinds of help with being successful but it dawns on me that I lack clarity regarding success and what it means to me. All my life, I was made to feel that the only way you can be considered a success is if you make money at whatever you do. So this got me wondering: can someone be considered a success without money being a factor? Can I be considered successful without making money at my art? (btw…I make no money doing any of my mandalsofthe____.)

A few years ago I had someone who was looking at my art ask: are you making any money at this? Ouch. It didn’t matter about the quality of my art, whether they liked it or not, or what I had to offer. They only seemed to care about the money. I want to dig deeper into my idea of success throughout the year and as I work through these principles. For now let me share a personal story.

In 1989 I ran my first (and only) marathon. I set the intention prior to running it that I wanted to be running (not walking) when I crossed the finish line and I wanted to have a smile on my face when I finished. Technically, it was more of a shuffle than running…but I finished as I had intended. And yes, it took me 5 hours 40 minutes and 39 seconds. And yes, those are Mickey Mouse ears. (I’ll leave that story for another day). Oh, and I have a disposable camera in my right hand (remember those?).

I didn’t make any money that day…in fact I had to pay in order to run it. So financially it was a bust. That smile on my face, though, tells a different story. It was a success. I was a success.

So how about you? How would you define success? What does success look like to you? What does being successful mean to you? How do you know when you are successful? Who sets the perimeters?

An Invitation

I invite you to color along with me this year as part of what I’m calling “The Year of Self-Exploration and Expansion” with all of my “Mandalas of the ___” (day, week, month, year). If you’re interested in more of a self-exploration approach to coloring, check out my “Coloring Mandalas as Meditation”. You can download this mandala to color at MandalaoftheWeek.com.