A. The Well. Navigating the Five Levels of Success

What is success?

Most of us want to be successful or rather, if you’re reading this, more successful than you see yourself today. If you’re reading this then answering the question of what is success completely, might very well be the start of a journey to transform yourself, and the lives of those around you.

What is success? What is it in your mind? Think quickly and write down your answer.

What is success is a question that pops up in quiet moments, on vacation, when we have pause to look at life and what is really important, perhaps also after a crisis, or series of them.

The examples I've given above are where we actually experience a different reality that reframes our perspective on how we look at life. Too often we brush off the information that these experiences of different levels of reality/success give us instead of cultivating them. This article series, along with the materials I've previously shared on Complete/DREAMS/MEANS for example, is about just that. How to use valuable self-insights to create the freedom to work and live authentically on our own terms.

What we believe success is, powerfully guides not only our work and life direction, but how we feel about those things now, and as we reach milestones on the way to our vision of success.

The challenge is that we often define success too narrowly and as a result we either never finally reach “it”, or don’t actually feel sustainably fulfilled or happy when we finally get "there".

What is success? Time to unpack it.

This article is about a model called The Well, which I’ve developed to help answer that question, to get to know yourself and what you really want better, to get some space and "oxygen" into the process, then to act on that to make your vision of success a reality.

Here is a picture of The Well:

Let’s begin with the concentric circles. Each represents a different level of success.

These are:

1. Attainment i.e. what I have. (things: money, job titles, possessions...)
2. Gratification i.e. what I feel. (experiences: seeking pleasure, avoiding pain...)
3. Importance i.e. what I need. (needs: relationships, health, meaningful work...)
4. Meaning i.e. what I stand for. (values: the meaning making process)
5. Being i.e. what I am. (existence: connection, Self-realization/ actualization/transcendence...)

If these headings seem a little familiar to you, I introduced an initial view of the five levels several years ago on LinkedIn and in The Good Life Book (2017) as a side-note to talk about the journey I'd been on at the time.

Since then I've returned to the core ideas so many times as I work with others, and think about what I'm trying to do...it was long overdue for the ideas to become a tool that you can use in its own right, and share with others. Here it is.

So, back to the model.

In principle, the level called Attainment is what most of us associate with success in its entirety, at least at first, but we need to get deeper to uncover other levels of success that also represent reality.

We go deeper through reflection (including self-knowledge exercises, looking into the past), through periodic awe-inducing experiences (in nature, through stories, video, virtual reality, on certain types of vacation, and so on) and also through activities and experiences that we can build into our everyday such as meditation, engaging in certain types of creativity (engaging with and producing great art, music), walking in nature, and physical exercise, for example.

In the diagram these paths to explore the levels of success are represented by the purple arrow. While engaging in the activities above you can reflect on "what is success?", particularly in terms of the deeper levels: what is Important to me (not just urgent), where is meaning in my life, what is meaningful, what is my essence, what are my core values, when all is said and done, how do I want to show up and give myself to the world. Although it hasn't been overt in my podcast or other video content or writings I've produced, I've really been trying to continuously expose you to different definitions of success, even to let you experience those in smaller and larger ways through the power of stories, music and images. For example, the guests on the podcast are pursuing their own definitions of success from different places and in vastly different ways. Once you've experienced these different points it can change your perspective on work and life, and you can use those insights to chart your future course as you wish. Going forward I'll continue to try to ramp up the level of immersivity and impact of the media and experiences I create, to match or exceed some of the life changing experiences I've had, and been part of creating for others in person.

The point is that we shouldn't wait or hope for experiences to come along that remind us what's important, and there is a whole machine set up to try to monopolize our time and attention from waking to sleeping, trying to sell us an answer that is already inside us.

Knowledge is power, if you use it. So, the orange arrow represents the process of realignment. After going deeper, you redefine success to a more holistic or complete definition that is tailored to you. Then you go about realigning the different parts of life: work, people, health, self-expression and spiritual practices (in the broadest sense), to begin to work and live your definition of success.

Of course, this is easier said than done since there are many obstacles to change. Firstly, if we’ve been used to living a certain way it can be difficult to change, even if the way we’re living and working isn’t that great. The reasons include inertia, fear of losing what we have and even who we are.

Another blocker to living a more intentional, holistic, multi-dimensional, integrated level of success (encompassing all five levels), is that we don't believe that we could or even should try to work and live that way.

We all know that we should start with the end in mind, but if we're not feeling confident in ourselves (and particularly as we look around to colleagues striving and climbing) then we might not even admit to ourselves or spend the time to work out where we really want to do, and be prepared to change.

There is much more to unpack here, and I'll save that for another time, but two reasons why you can achieve something more or different are as follows.

Firstly, and keeping this short, is Nietzsche's "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” The deeper you go, you tap into other levels of drive and focus that you didn't know you had, because you are revealing your true self.

Secondly, I've seen again and again how teaching someone the fundamental creative tools and techniques and getting them to apply those causes a powerful transformation. People aim higher and (because they) have the confidence and competence to create innovative paths, better solve problems, to actualize their aspiration in the real world.

What is your definition of success as you’d like it to be?

Write a paragraph, an "integrated" definition of success statement, using the five levels of success as prompts, start your thinking from the inside (5. Being), and working your way out to (1. Attainment), focussing more deeply on levels 3,4 and 5, since these are the ones we often either neglect or don't take the time to define clearly, or set goals on.

Imagine you are having a conversation with a trusted colleague or friend after reading this article and the topic of success comes up, and you answer "To me, success is really...X,Y and Z, even though that can be hard to achieve in practice, it's something I'm trying to work on". X,Y, and Z is your paragraph describing a holistic view of success.

How does that match up to how you’re living now?

What is one thing that you could do to change, to live a more complete definition of success?

The good news is that authenticity is a power. As you dig down into deeper levels of success, you get closer to your core values, essence, who you are and what you were put on the planet for.

By inhabiting deeper levels of success more often, you can begin to nurture what I call The Wellspring of creative vitality (read more in a future article). You tap into your passion, and a valuable generalized source of distinctive creative ideas that can be channeled to make your dream and aspirational success a reality.

Part of freeing up that wellspring is learning those fundamental creative tools and techniques I just mentioned, in the right way. The more you go to The Well, so to speak, easier it becomes to access, and eventually the ideas begin to bubble up of their own accord.

Creatives, and I've experienced this personally, describe how big ideas seem to come fully-formed from another place / in a different voice / not from them. I've described this feeling all kinds of ways, like tuning in, bubbling up and so on. Sometimes this feels like you're walking through a forest, the chatter of the day to day, and you come to a clearing and the idea is just sitting there in the middle of the clearing. It's a gift that you simply pick up.

Filmmaker David Lynch, for example, has also written in his book Catching the Big Fish (2006) about the connection between transcendental meditation and the emergence of big creative ideas. This is particularly relevant since many of us are fishing in the shallows, coming up with small fish/ideas, and thinking that is all there is.

As I've alluded to already, while these definitions of success are prompts and can be used as the basis of reflection and definition, goal setting and so on, they are in essence also truths, each representing a simultaneous reality, one that you can choose to focus on, inhabit and make a more regular part of your work and life.

Taking this to the extreme, imagine in your left hand you hold a new promotion (1. Attainment success) and in your right hand you hold connection to the universe, transcendence and Self-realization (5. Being success). Firstly, both are success in that they are valuable aims that people dedicate their energy and time to, and it's not really an either-or situation. Secondly though, while it's common for a promotion to "backfire" or at least fit the saying "be careful what you wish for", I've heard fewer be remorseful about self transcending experiences, for example.

But this all will be revealed in a very personal way as you work through the levels of success for yourself, and through the activities in upcoming articles. Some of the effects of working across the levels of success are much shorter term and easier to envisage. For example.

You also feel better.

When you’re regularly involved in meditation and creative practices, looking after your mental and physical health, or spending quality energy with people you care about, you feel more connected and grounded. You're operating at deeper levels of success. What I call living at a deeper level.

It sets the scene for life transforming ideas and how-tos to emerge when your mind is cleared of keeping up with the Joneses or what restaurant you’re going to eat at, or place you’ll visit. There's still plenty of time for that, if you wish, since little of the chatter that fills our mind during the average day is productive, so you have time for deep ideas, then shallow. If you wish. As well as deeper, the wellspring enables you to live on a higher level as well. Higher, elevated level of being, and in the levels of success.

In practice, The Well model is more than a one-shot exercise, it is a model for living. The deeper levels of success don't suddenly go away just because you're not focused on them. The more you become "native" and "fluent" in the five levels the more benefits you get.

Each definition of success is a reality, a state of working and living. You’ll find that if you’re walking the talk and living the Importance level of success, for example, you’re doing the things such as exercising, investing in relationships and expressing yourself that help other parts of life such as work to flourish. This was the core idea in The Good Life Book, and it is well detailed there, and in the resources on the book website.

In a sense, you are The Well, and The Well is you, it's a lens to look at yourself and how you want to be. It's a reminder of the source of creative potential within you. Whether you like it or not, you embody the definition of success you have, or at least the outcomes of the version of success you've been striving for.

I'll also be writing a primer article on The Wheel that joins up different areas of work and life with the ideas of Importance, Meaning and Being. To make that connection forward now, the ideas of Meaning and Being are embedded in the concept of the Core/Hub of The Wheel, and Importance is represented by the five spokes. So all the work you're doing now builds into future breakthroughs, and stages of moving from insights to action, building momentum. The right types of experiences change your perspective, which in turn helps you change how you allocate your energy, and can lead to a virtuous cycle. For example a certain experience might give you the perspective of Carpe Diem ("seize the day"), or that "work/business, is a game" or that "you can't control the universe", and these ideas might change how you approach work and life.

Also look out for a longer article in future that explains the levels of success in more detail, and explains a bit more of the backstory of how I came up with them, and a more detailed how-to on using the model.

Rest assured, all the information I’m sharing is based both on personal experience, how life pushed me to go deep on what success really meant, and based on the process of working with leaders, professionals, creatives, changemakers and so on, over a number of years.

Those insights were enough to support my decision to change careers, and start a new chapter of life. I love teaching people, learning and sharing information, creating experiences that help people live on a higher and deeper level, and what I’m doing now is more of that, much more. My vision remains to find more engaging ways to take you on the journey and experience all of this in a shared immersive space, even from the comfort of where you are now. I'm working on it. For now, this article represents some cultivated (and free) food for thought.

For me, while I was conventionally successful before I’m more holistically successful now, more complete, even as I, like all of us, need to keep working hard to optimize both money and meaning. I don’t believe that just because you want to be more authentic that you have to be poor, or become a monk. The trick is in navigating the levels of success from the inside-out, rather than the other way around. Build outer success based on inner success and wins.

Also I have kids, a true mirror to reality and the soul if there ever was one. Although they're both still under 9 years of age, the relentless testing and norming at school has been going for several years already, with all the potential reactivity that that drives, not to mention schooling in materialism. I'm trying to encourage in them creative outlets they can have for life, and to value their uniqueness as a source of strength. Something I hope will carry through to adulthood.

I hope this brief intro to The Well has been useful. Please ask any questions you have in the comments, on socials, DM me on LinkedIn, or email me. You can also visit https://thegoodlifebook.com/ and join the mailing list to get the first chapters and self-knowledge exercises from the book (also check out the resources page), or of course you can buy The Good Life Book (2017), and that will help support me bringing you more content in future.

All the best,

Brett.

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