How do you define Success and Failure?

I spent some time this morning meditating on the message for today. I was given the word Failure.

The idea of failure can invoke a myriad of memories, feelings, and reactions in each of us, spanning our lifetimes, often triggering judgement or shame. When I looked up the meaning of the word, it simply means a lack of success. And so then I began to question the polarity of Failure to Success, whether it is a binary yes or no for either, and really, whether its all in our perspective and subject to filters of belief. Its been an interesting morning!

Over the past few weeks, I have been 'measuring' success and failure in my own life, questioning big choices over time, and attempting to reconcile my doubts and self-criticism around the path that I have chosen. And so much of what I perceive about that path and those decisions, I have been weighing against whether they result in Failure or Success.

And I have decided that this is a pretty terrible way to view your life.

The binary, fixed labels of either success or failure provide little depth of information about what an experience truly provides - every choice we make, every endeavor will cause an effect. And this effect, while it may be realised in a specific moment, will span time, rippling through our lives. So a moment of 'failure' may set us on a trajectory that allows us to change career, meet a best friend, move home or country, or heal a wounded part of ourselves.

And on the other hand, a perceived Success could overly define a part of our identity, resulting in repeating a pattern which we should really grow beyond. We may become fixed in what worked before, and so we stifle our imagination, or limit the creative aspects within, and then refuse to evolve.

I would encourage you to look back at the last year (or further if you feel called), and pinpoint what you defined as a Success or Failure. And see if you can remove those labels. And if you can, to zoom out into your lifelong journey, to see them simply as steps along the way, which help you to awaken, learn, grow.

Allow the shame, fear, doubt, the fixed energy, the limitation around any of these to resolve, so that you can be free of the defining choices of your past, so that you can liberate your energy for greater alignment, a lighter future.

And spend some time meditating on the following:

• If I released the judgements and criticism of my past, what could I be free to explore now?
• Which aspects of my identity have I built on past successes or failures? What could evolve if I surrendered those labels?
• How much of my energy is pushing, desperate for 'success'? And do I really understand the motivation for the pushing? What would happen if I stopped?
• Can I see how my 'failures' have helped me to grow and evolve? Can I release the emotion around the judgements, and continue to evolve more gracefully?

Remember that our perspectives often leave little room for nuance, or understanding of the bigger picture. And that the journey is meant to move us, to change and shape us, and this will happen, as long as we do not become too fixed or defined by the judgements. Allow yourself to embody more patience and grace as you take the next step, without defining it as success or failure.