Success Advice

It’s Time to Stop Chasing a False Image of Success

Published

3 years ago

Mar 3, 2021

Image Credit: Unsplash

Each person reading this will have a different idea about what accomplishing success involves. For some, you want to lose weight. For others, you desire to build a business that creates financial freedom. An excellent general definition could be becoming the best you in each major area of your life.

Whatever success means to you has probably been shaped and modeled over the years by the images you see of people in your sphere creating success for themselves. Social media has millions of daily users that are sharing information about their life and business. You see stories of success and what looks like impressive wins. It’s not uncommon for people to share a highlight reel without talking about the struggle on the path to accomplishing those wins.

Conceptually, we know that we don’t get to see the full picture when someone shares their wins, but seeing those images of what we feel is success feeds into our limiting beliefs. We get caught in the comparison trap even though we know better. The comparison cripples success-seekers.

If you’re going to reach new growth levels and accomplish your goals, you’ll need to stop chasing a false image of what it takes to create success. Here’s why.

Vanity Influences the Creation of False Narratives

The Internet and social media have created a culture in which individuals can instantly get their ego fed. You post an accomplishment, and immediate praise follows. That ego hit is intoxicating and makes individuals want to experience it often. The vanity causes false narratives about what’s happening in someone’s life.

If your image of success is this vanity-driven false narrative, you’re going to be the one left without a chair when the music stops. Your look into someone else’s success journey is a surface-level glance. You can’t base what you do and the decisions you make on the little bit you see.

It’s great to see success and be inspired by it. A smart strategy is when you see success and research the elements and steps that could help you — model success and use what you see from others as motivation. But, don’t let an incomplete narrative be your driving force towards your goals.

“Attitude drives actions. Actions drive results. Results drive lifestyles.” – Jim Rohn

Beware of Being Sold a Lifestyle

In the day and age that we live in, entrepreneurs sell books, digital information products, consulting, and coaching. For some of these entrepreneurs, portraying a lifestyle of success is a marketing tactic. You’ve probably seen a social media ad in your feed from an entrepreneur advertising an appealing lifestyle that doesn’t require a lot of work.

You have to look at the motivation and reason behind images of success in others. If the success posters are trying to sell you on a lifestyle, it’s not likely you’ll get the full picture of their success — if it’s even real. Don’t fall for the flashy copy or good advertising.

The reality is that you probably don’t need another course to understand your success path. You need more execution of what you already know, and you need to develop consistent healthy habits. Your intuition knows what you need.

There is No Substitute for the Work

Images of success can be an inspiration, but if success becomes a reality in your life, it will happen when you do the work. There is no substitute for mapping out your goals, taking daily action, and pushing through moments of challenge. The main image you should aspire to is a vision of you being consistent in doing the hard work to be your best you.

Success is putting in the work and being motivated by the process. Success is experiencing setbacks and learning from them. You create success by understanding that it’s okay to want more from life and stop waiting for permission to step into your power. Success happens with healthy boundaries and enforcing them.

A false image of success has held you back for far too long. The image you should strive for is your vision of your dream life. Visualizing success is a powerful strategy that doesn’t involve what anyone else is doing.

Get clarity on what you want and get to work. Let the false images of success come and go. You know what you have to do — it’s time to work.

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Lisa Collum

Lisa Collum is a CEO, author, educator, and mother of four with a remarkable history of working to change lives both inside and outside the classroom. She owns and operates two educational companies, Top Score Writing, Inc., and Coastal Middle and High School. She has 16 years of real-world experience helping women start and build businesses. Her focus is on helping women entrepreneurs create the strategy and tactics that consistently generate revenue, create financial security, and do it all with balance. Join her at lisacollum.com.

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Success Advice

How to Ignite the Spark Within for Future Success

All of us come to this world with our own reserve of magic unfortunately, not everyone can unleash it

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Success Advice

How to Break the Cycles of Mediocrity and Manifest Your Greatness

There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity

Published

3 weeks ago

Nov 16, 2023

Jamelle Sanders

Image Credit: Midjourney

In just a few weeks, we will be wrapping up 2023. Can you believe it? This year has been absolutely incredible for me.

I have seen amazing doors opened, new relationships formed and I am seeing dreams realized in my life. While this seems like the hallmarks of a great year, this has also been the most challenging year of my life. With all of the change happening in my life, I have been forced out of my comfort zone and challenged to grow in every area of my life.

I can truly say that I have made the most of my moments this year and I have used everything as a catalyst for maximizing my greatest potential.

As a revolutionary leader, I have the pleasure of consulting and advising leaders around the world to fulfill purpose, realize their greatest potential and make an impact.

I want to share some insights with you that will help you to break cycles of mediocrity and manifest your greatness.

Everything legal must come through the matrix

I am sure that some of you are wondering why I am using the term matrix. However, what you have to understand is that I am trying to make a highly complex spiritual principle practical to understand.

Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, every life has an origin and I believe that origin is divine and begins with eternity. You are birthed from eternity and into time to fulfill a unique purpose and assignment in your lifetime and generation.

The matrix is simply the portal or vehicle that brings something out of the invisible realm and into tangible form. The problem with much of the teaching today is that it excludes the matrix. We are told to believe that success is instantaneous and overnight.

Nobody talks about how a dream progresses through stages beginning with visualization and ultimately culminating in manifestation. Without a matrix or portal then everything that you attempt to birth and build will be illegal.

The matrix not only makes you legal but it gives you the authority and power to function as the greatest expression of who you were created to be.

Every matrix has an incubation process

While many people admire and respect me today, I remember a time when nobody knew who I was or the significance of my message. How did I get to where I am today? I got here through an incubation process.

In other words, everything that has been destined for your life is incubating and awaiting a set time of manifestation. The problem is that most people live their entire lives idle and never initiate the incubation process.

What do I meany by that? Most people are living reckless and very few people are living intentionally. I am amazed at the number of people I have conversations with that have no vision, goals or strategies for their lives. They show great promise and they have undeniable potential.

However, without development they will die with their dreams still in them.

Everything that has been destined for your life must be incubated and converted to become realities born to time.

“Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin to build.” – Robert Collier

You must give expression to that which is not yet born to time

When you think about a matrix or a prophetic incubation process, you have to understand that potential is often unrealized and untapped. In other words, your potential is in raw form and your potential cannot serve you as long as it is untapped.

The thing that makes me valuable is that I have the ability to convert potential into power. I have done it in my own life and I have empowered leaders around the world to do the same. How do you convert potential into power?

First, it is important to note that you have to perceive potential. If you cannot perceive your potential then you can never cultivate your potential. In addition, you must take the time to cultivate your potential. We often get excited about our capabilities; however, we never expand our capacity in order to realize our greatest potential.

In other words, the strength of your potential is only discovered through your willingness to stretch. The more we are challenged the more we are empowered to expand our capacity for greatness. Most of all, you must begin to express your potential. The expression of potential is different for every person.

For example, the expression of my potential is best demonstrated through the thoughts, ideas, products, services, books, etc.

For another person the expression of potential may look like a screenplay, artwork, sports, scientific discoveries, medical breakthroughs, etc.

Regardless of the form of expression, I know that you will live empty and unfulfilled until you make the decision to express your potential. The expression of your potential gives voice to your dreams, life to your vision, significance to your moments and activates your true power.

You must manifest your greatness

As a revolutionary thinker and leader, my work has impacted people around the world. I am grateful that my life is a source of empowerment to so many people. However, before anyone could ever benefit from my life, I had to make a non-negotiable decision to become who I was born to be.

I wish I could tell you that this journey is easy and that you will get there overnight. However, in a world that celebrates us for doing we are often criticized for being. As a result, I wasted a lot of time trying to be who other people wanted me to be instead of being who I was born to be.

There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity. It is through our bravery to be vulnerable that we ultimately manifest our greatness. We do not bless the world by being a duplicate. We bless the world when we honor our difference. When you honor your difference you honor your potential.

Ultimately, your difference is how you manifest your greatness.

When you present anything but your authentic self to the world, you are playing small and you are robbing the world of your significance. Manifesting your greatness requires you to master your gifts.