A Journey of PURPOSEFUL Success

Achieving our goals while lifting others in the process is what I call ‘Purposeful Success.’ Purposeful success is being bounded by personal values, ethics, and integrity in our pursuit of achieving beyond our natural abilities. It is also, in part, helping others to achieve personal and career success. Purposeful success is goodness in the pursuit of achievement.?

So far in this series we’ve used a metaphor of a car on a journey. We started by deciding to change the direction and speed of our personal achievements by embarking on a new journey or starting again to achieve beyond our natural abilities. We likened our self-image to a performance car raising our view of our potential. Next, we programmed our desired life destination into our car’s GPS. Finally, we talked about fueling that pursuit with grit and tenacity.?

I want to add the concept of ‘Arrive Alive,’ a slogan once used by the Florida Transportation Department to reduce traffic fatalities. It means that achieving success by exacting a toll on us and others is not success. Our journey will be challenged by detours, failed shortcuts, and traffic. Our response to these distractions will determine how successful we really are.?

In 1994, a Danish company was seeking a way to make road striping more visible in rainy weather. Their invention, Rumble Strips, is now deployed across America and has saved countless lives. Rumble strips alert drowsy or distracted drivers with noisy vibrations when they are drifting off the roadway.?

In our metaphor, the rumble strips of our professional journey are our governing values. We have all heard the adage, “He is successful, but you should see the trail of bodies he left along the way.”??

Governing values remind us that our career aspirations and achievements should not be accomplished at the expense of our associates, families, or even our own wellbeing. Values act as guardrails to keep us on course and avoid running astray. They keep our long-term performance true to our personal ethics, standards of conduct and shared success.?

Success without purpose is an empty pursuit. Our values-based journey should not only lead us to higher goals but also lift and edify others along the way. Sharing our success by valuing our fellow travelers makes the journey more meaningful. Achieving beyond our natural abilities is attainable and more satisfying if we include the X-Factor component of Purposeful Success.???