We’ve been taught as a society to hustle, work hard, don’t stop, keep going… do anything to achieve results and be successful. 

While it’s great to be tenacious and go after what you want in life (and business), at what cost? 

In 2007, Arianna Huffington (co-founder of Huffington post, a brilliant author and businesswoman who’s made it to the Forbes most powerful women list) found herself lying on the floor of her home office in a pool of blood. 

She collapsed from exhaustion hitting her head on the desk, cutting her eye and breaking her cheekbone.  

Arianna was working 18 hour days, 7 days a week and this event caused her to stop and ask herself, is this what success looks like? 

Who remembers the old cold & flu tv ads? 

It was all about the messaging… to soldier on and keep going no matter what! 

What about the messaging for when it was ‘that time of the month’? 

Again it was to keep going no matter what (aaagh those horse riding ads)! 

Hustle culture hasn’t only been thrown at us in the business environment, it’s been a full 360 across all areas of our life. 

And it’s time for change. 

Think about it, even professional athletes know that in order to attain optimal levels of performance, they need to schedule quality rest and recovery into their training schedule. 

This downtime gives the body the chance to repair and grow stronger. 

A healthy (and successful) approach to work and building your business is the same. 

Learning how to do less and be more is more than just a popular catch-phrase (it’s a great book by Susan Pearse and Martina Sheehan!). 

It’s a must for you to create long term, sustainable results. 

In the recent Big Small Business Survey ‘exhausted’ is the word business owners repeatedly use when describing their mood and well-being. 

58% of small businesses surveyed have experienced a mental health challenge in the last 2 years (again according to the Big Small Business Survey).

I know I know! 

You want it all, a thriving business, time with your loved ones, money to live stress free and enjoy life. 

And you can have it! But working tirelessly isn’t the way to get it. 

Mary Oliver famously said ‘Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild precious life?’

For Arianna, a chain of events set her on a mission to redefine what success could look like. 

She introduced a 3rd measure of success alongside the traditional measures of money and power. It’s a combination of well-being, wisdom, wonder and giving. 

For our clients it’s the True North Wheel – encompassing Business Growth, Managing Money AND prioritising life as equally important as each other. 

When I think about Thriving in business and in life, I think about redefining traditional measures of success and breaking cycles to allow you (and your business) to thrive without the burnout.

My question to you is, do you prioritise life as much as you do other ‘traditional’ forms of success?

Where you spend your time and the goals you’re going after hold the clues to what your definition of success is. 

For example, are you only focusing on linear, number based, masculine goals such as revenue targets or do you also have more flow, feeling, feminine goals such as how you want to feel, what you do with your time?

I invite you to take a look at these clues and bring critical thinking to what success means to you. Don’t be passive with this, ask yourself… 

Is my definition of success serving me well? 

Is it well rounded covering both masculine and feminine aspects of business and life? 

Does it need to change like Ariannas did?