Climbing the mountain of success and reaching our goals can be a heady experience. Though, reaching the ‘top’ of the mountain offers an, often, unseen danger: the choice, conscious or not, to feel contented and satisfied, or instantly craving MORE.

There are SO many ways that fame can provide this opportunity for choice: rave reviews, accolades, media coups, winning awards-heck, even that elixir of love-like energy; applause.

In any of those situations, it’s our job to decide what success means when we get it-and that will inform whether we are satisfied with that success, or immediately starving for the next one.

A deeper question to ask ourselves, to find this out, is, often, “Am I trying to meet a need with this goal I have?”

Here’s an example: two authors have written a book. We’ll call them Cindy and Martina. Both are now on a lecture tour. For both Cindy and Martina, completing their books was an amazing experience, and they are both proud to share what they’ve written with the public.

In Cindy’s case, she has always felt a driving need to share her message with the world. She’s thrilled to be on a lecture tour and she’d be just as thrilled to be able to have impromptu talks at dunkin donuts about her book. The need that drives her is sharing her message. She feels great when her audiences shower her with applause and feedback like, “My life has changed since reading your book! You inspire me SO much!” And when she arrives home after her lecture tour, she has the blues for awhile-pretty normal after all that excitement, but then immediately picks up, not looking back, determined & invigorated to share more.

Martina also has had a drive to share her message with the world. Since sharing her work with the public on her lecture tour, she’s realized that she LOVES the applause and the feedback she’s been getting from her audiences. It gives her a zing that’s unlike anything else she’s ever felt, it even trumps sharing her message. When she gets home from her tour, and has her post-tour blues don’t go away. Suddenly, it’s as if she’s got to have more. More attention, more applause, more people making a fuss over her, saying how inspiring she is. She still wants to share her message, but now, her message is secondary to the attention that she’s been getting.

In Cindy’s case, success means simply sharing her message. Applause and adulation is icing, but she really gets her satisfaction from sharing. In Martina’s case, she gets some satisfaction from sharing, but in sharing publicly, she’s uncovered a need for something that applause and adulation are filling-at least, temporarily.

For Cindy, sharing with others is like the meat and potatoes that sustains her. For Martina, applause seems to be similar to chocolate-it feels REALLY good going down, but doesn’t provide any nutritional, life-sustaining value. Oh yeah, and eating it makes her body crave more.

Who do you relate to more, Martina or Cindy? Who would you LIKE to relate to more? Which level of satisfaction seems more attractive to you? The kind that Cindy has when she wakes up every day, energized, whether there’s an audience in front of her or not? Or the kind that Martina has, that needs to be replenished each day by feedback from other people?

Deciding what type of satisfaction you’re aiming for can direct you toward where “enough” is for you and it can help you to structure your perceptions and your choices around the kind of satisfaction and success that will sustain you; the kind that feels like ENOUGH once you’ve had it.

Much like food-success begs the question, “How long after you’ve had it are you hungry (or starving) again?”

If your answer is that you’re starving again pretty darn fast, then it’s very possible that it’s time to reevaluate  what need you’re meeting with success, and if that’s the best way to meet it, since it would seem that, for you, enough is definitely not enough. And that’s a recipe for a life that’s about to get unhappy very, very fast.

My wish for you is that ALL success in your life is just icing, while the rest of your journey sticks to your ribs in the most nourishing and satisfying way. If I can help you find what TRULY nourishes you, let me know, I would love to help!

Tags: Career Satisfaction, contentment, happiness

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 at 10:07 am and is filed under Career Satisfaction, Entertainment Industry, Hollywood. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.