What Does Success Mean To You?
Getting stuck in a loop of achievement will strangle your happiness. For years, I was stuck in this loop. I worked extremely hard and accomplished some huge goals, but I never took the time to feel my success. What is success to you? How do you see yourself? Are you successful or are you striving for more? I want you to realize how successful you already are. Learn how you can stop circling the toilet bowl and start feeling the fruits of your labor.
Hi and Welcome to the Inspire RN Podcast.
My name is Kate Avery and if you’re new here, just a little background info for you: I have been a Nurse since 2015, a mother of 3, an entrepreneur coach, and so much more. Over the last few years, I started to notice how nursing was not fitting the needs of my growing family.
So I decided enough was enough and I embarked on this journey to find a better way. This has included countless self-help books, multiple courses, and a deep dive into figuring out what the heck I wanted.
Now, I started this podcast to inspire and motivate you, if you also feel the burnout of nursing while supporting a growing family. Then you’re in the right place. Let’s build our dream life together.
Every week I share my adventures and I share hard lessons I have learned along the way. Make sure you follow the podcast and download the episodes every Friday, you can also follow me on Instagram at Inspirern. but most importantly I have started a new blog and I would love your thoughts, so go check it out at inspirern.com
What Is Success To You?
For me, when I think about success it’s this feeling of reaching the top of the mountain and feeling like I can stop fighting for “that thing“. It’s a sense of calmness and peace. Everyone has a different idea of what success is. You could think about your success on a larger scale like your vision and that being your top of the mountain or maybe it’s on a much smaller scale like the end of a goal. But when you’re trying to make these pivots in life and going after these goals you need to know where the finish line is. And that’s not so that you stop, it’s so that you give yourself the reward you deserve. You acknowledge your achievements. Stop and see how powerful you are before you conquer the next big goal.
SMARTen Those Goals Up
There is a reason behind setting SMART goals. I know you have heard of them before.
Goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-oriented.
Setting goals like this gives you a clear finish line. It’s always a great idea to set a reward for your end date, something that makes sense for the goal and would keep you motivated to complete that goal.
But this discussion today is more than just encouraging you to use smart goals, it’s really to talk about the cycle that many of us overachievers get stuck in. You’re probably stuck in it right now, which is why I want to make sure I share my story so that you can become aware and change your habits before you crash like I did.
Let’s imagine this scenario for a minute.
You have just started to embark on a journey (aka a goal), and when you initially look up, it all seems like a huge mountain, the biggest you have seen in fact. You may question if you can even climb this mountain, but you take a deep breath and you start, One foot at a time. Step by step you begin to climb. and as you climb you look up again and the mountain is much smaller now. Eventually, it’s a hill and as you climb that last stretch to make it to the summit you notice you are at the bottom of another mountain. Without a second thought, you start climbing and this cycle continues to happen again and again. How long do you think you will be able to keep this up without a pause for food or rest?
This is a great illustration of what I call the Overachiever cycle.
Break the Cycle
I am extremely guilty of getting stuck in the overachiever cycle. Chasing goals and then not acknowledging my accomplishments or just moving on to the next. I am becoming more and more aware of this cycle. That is why I want to have this discussion with you today. If you continue on this cycle like I was and sometimes still am, you can find yourself burned out. Really lacking that joy for life, and punishing your self-worth all for the thrill of the climb.
I love talking about living your life not surviving it.
When you are always chasing goals without celebrating your achievements, you’ll find yourself living in a cycle of survival.
Don’t Live By My Example
I have been in school for forever. Not exaggerating. I completed High school and went right into college. Once I graduated and passed NCLEX, I waited a semester before I enrolled in my bachelor’s degree. Then same thing I went straight to grad school. I never stopped to go to my graduations, nor to even acknowledge my achievements. I just kept chugging away. Because my goal was always the big picture of more. I will admit that I didn’t know what more was. I never took the time to pause to get clear on what more was. Well, big surprise when I found myself deflecting my achievements and feeling burnout from school.
So why am I sharing this story and talking about achievements? When you get stuck in the overachiever cycle you tend to lose sight of what might be the accomplishment. You are just running on the hampster wheel. So you might feel really chaotic or unfocused and you just not running in a straight line. This happens and the best lesson I have learned from this is to pause and re-evaluate.
Pause and Re-Evaluate
The fastest way I have found to achieve a goal is to make it small and to stay focused. I have been in so many situations where I thought I was on the right track and I was just going through the motions just to find myself in the same spot a few weeks later.
Making these smart goals small enough to achieve quickly gives you a sense of momentum and if you know you need this to keep going then do it.
Get Help From Me
I have a webinar coming up that will help you move through the process of assessing your life and setting goals that will move you forward. I am going to give you an introduction to my stepping-stone method so that you can gain momentum.
Journal Prompt
So I want you to sit down tonight and journal. What is it that mountain you are trying to climb? Maybe ask yourself if you feel stuck in the overachiever cycle or have been in the past and what are some rewards or celebrations you can congratulate yourself on.
I will see you next week for another episode of the inspire rn podcast. If you are interested in signing up for the webinar click the button below.