Why success without sustainability isn't success at all

When I was 14, I had a single dream. I knew exactly what success in adulthood would look like.

And, dear reader, I found it!

For the last x years, I’ve been living that vision of success, leading people in song, helping connect my community through music, even taking my singers to Carnegie Hall in New York (a career highpoint for sure!).

So why have I walked away from my dream? And why, just as significantly, have I done so with a definite song in my heart and the infinite blessing of my singers.

Because, as much as we will all miss our time together in the choir room, they, and I, know one thing:

Success doesn’t always mean what we think it does.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I didn’t chase the wrong dream. And my success with my choir, Sing Portland! felt, for a long time, exciting, authentic, and truly aligned with both my career goals and my life goals.

But things change.

As much as I still love leading people in song, I’ve come to realize that it no longer aligns with my evolving goals. It doesn’t allow me to spend evenings with my children, to tuck them in at night. It may allow me to have a positive impact on people’s lives, but it doesn’t allow me to make a truly paradigm shifting change in the world.

In short, it’s no longer sustainable, and it’s no longer 100% true to me.

And if success isn’t sustainable — or true to you — I would argue that it isn’t success at all.

My singers know it. It’s why, when I made the painful announcement that I’d be closing the choir, they released me with a smile and the promise that, “Your family always comes first, but we’ll be here. Whenever you want to sing, let us know.”

I suspect you know it too. It’s why you’re here. It’s why you’re questioning what success should — or could — look like in your own career, your own life. And it’s why I’m here to help you envision a different kind of success.

Unsustainable success.

You see, we’ve been encouraged, for years, to paint a specific picture of success: making big bucks, living in a mansion, having people answer to us, or the fancy corner office with expensive art on the walls.

Here’s what we all inevitably realize: none of that is worth anything if it comes at the cost of our greatest resources: our minds, our body, and our spirit. None of that is worth anything if you barely see your family or deplete your health along the way.

So let’s finally put that vision of success to rest and think about what real lasting success actually looks like.

Let’s explore success in a way that’s both sustainable AND true to you.

And to me, here’s what that looks like:

Not just career advancement or more financial freedom but finding a healthy balance between work, family, self-care, and play.

Engaging in meaningful work, work that goes far deeper than a paycheck. Because we all know that the world can’t go on the way it has and it’s so important that we all ask ourselves what we want to do to create a fairer, more just world for us all.

Knowing when what’s needed most on any given day is cleaning up the house (hey, an organized environment is invaluable for organizing your thoughts!) or embracing that big, audacious, but oh-so-important dream that won’t let you go.

And finally, recognizing that you cannot do the world a greater favor than to be who you truly are and to embark upon work that is so totally aligned with who you are that you can go to work tired, yet come home feeling fully charged and inspired.

That’s what I experienced when I led Sing Portland!, when that work was totally aligned with who I was and what I wanted. And it’s what I feel now, as a coach, as I help people clarify their vision, hold it for them, and watch as they rise up to meet it.

And I want you to experience that feeling too.

If you, too, are inspired to make a difference to the lives of those around you, if you’re equally determined to make the world a fairer place, a place that no longer thrives on exploitation or extraction, I want to help you find that success — and of course, I want to help you do so in a way that feels completely and utterly sustainable and true to you.

Ready to define what that version of success will look like for you? Let’s get started.