We are told our whole lives that success works this way—

We work hard, we get the things that we are supposed to get. We achieve. We make money. We get power and status and relationships.

We do it all with the conviction that if we can only get enough and have enough we can (finally) BE enough.

That we can get rid of the nagging feeling inside, the feeling that we have had our whole lives, that there is something missing in us.

But what if that’s exactly backwards?

What if the sense of not enough is only a projection, a story? Made up by our parents, by society, and then, unwittingly, by us? A story that protects us, but also damages us?

The story of you is just a story. Designed to have you feel danger, and to take action to make yourself safe. Except it has gone awry, and there is now no amount of action that you can take that will get you to that point of arrival, of safety, of “enough.”

If you want to get a sense of how crazy the ego is, notice that, if you are like most achievers, you want BOTH to stand out, AND to fit in.

Want to know more? Be sure to sign up for my free book in the box on the right.

There are a couple of meanings for this phrase. And both have ended up a bit of a specialty for me.

The first is when what you are doing is no longer working.

When the strategy that has always brought you success has taken you as far as you can go. Being the smartest person in the room no longer works when you are leading a team. They need to be in the spotlight now (at least when they are succeeding).

The second is when what you get is no longer rewarding.

More money, a promotion—no longer exciting.

Because you’ve realized you want something different.

Meaning. Purpose. A reason to get up in the morning. A way to change the world.

We all need that right now.

And if you’d like some support on either of these versions of “more of the same isn’t enough,” please contact me and I’m happy to get on a call.

Yesterday I put the finishing touches on a book that is near and dear to my heart.

”Lead from Purpose: How Finding and Living from Your Deeper Reason for Being is Key to Everything You Want” is now available to anyone who requests it. You can find a link to a free copy in the “Want to Go Deeper?” box to the right of this blog.

My hope is that, like my clients, as many people as possible begin to see that we have success backwards.

That we think that if we get the right job, the right title, the right amount of money, that we will somehow be “fixed” and happy.

But actually the opposite is true. When we see that there was never anything wrong with us, then we are free to create what we were meant to create. To do what we were meant to do.

And then all the other stuff tends to come anyway. Just as we realized we don’t really need it!

The last of the four ways that spiritual teacher Michael Beckwith says that we can see life is “as me.”

What does he mean by this?

Remember that when life is operating “through me,” we are beginning to drop the small self and sense into the bigger one.

“As me” refers to living as this bigger self. Whatever you wish to call it. Infinite intelligence. Spirit. God. The domain of saints and sages.

Of course, most of us get mere momentary glimpses of “as me.”

But when we do, they are remarkably healing. We see that everything is already perfect. That nothing needs to be done.

We can be grateful when we get a moment to rest as this.

And we can also appreciate when it becomes clear it’s time to work again. Because it is in this “as me” space that insight comes. Whether it is simply about the next thing we need to do, or the bigger purpose that the universe has in store for us.

Have you been in this space? What insights have you had while in it?