What is Success?

Nick Shibanov
4 min readDec 11, 2021

Isn’t it funny, many of us strive for success for much of our lives without taking a moment to actually understand what success is on a deeper level.

The prevailing view which most of us are exposed to is that of success as pushing through. Hard work. Dedication. Grinding. Keep going no matter what until we get what we want.

This view ties success to a tremendous amount of effort and force. This view can get us somewhere in life but it won’t bring true sustainable success. It has a limitation because it relies on force. It relies on pushing against something and trying to get something.

There is a much more powerful approach in which we rely on being pulled into success rather than forcing our way into it.

To demonstrate this alternative approach, let’s use an example.

Success from a place of power

Recently, I watch a documentary about Lionel Messi — the worlds best soccer player. What impressed me most about Messi, was his attitude and way of being. When being interviewed about all the world-record-breaking awards he had received, the interviewer set Messi up in a way that invited him to gloat and inflate his pride but Messi saw right through it and said something along the lines of:

“As I’ve said over and over again, I never played for these awards. When I play, I play to be at my best for my club, my country, and most of all myself.”

Messi played for the satisfaction and joy of being the best that he could be. Not to beat someone. Not to win something. But for the innate enjoyment of being the best that he could be — using the talents he had been given by God. It could be seen as gratitude and a feeling of responsibility to be ones very best out of respect for the gifts given.

Undoubtedly, Messi worked very hard but that was not the essential key to his incredible success. The hard work was just an expression of his own dedication to being the very best that he could be for its own sake. Not for a reward. Not for anything. He didn’t actually want anything. Therefore, the source of his motivation that energised him was untouchable. Nothing could touch it because it came from within.

When we want something out of it, we limit the power available to us and things feel very effortful and gruelling. This is because we feel like we lack something and therefore do not feel complete within ourselves.

But when we act from the intention of being our very best in that moment for it’s own sake or to serve God/Life, then we are coming from a place of wholeness and completeness. We know within ourselves that we are doing our best and we don’t need to prove anything to anyone. That is power.

When that is the intention that energises all our actions, success is inevitable in whatever we do. Everything we touch turns to gold because of what we are. Our intention sanctifies every deed into a gift of upliftment for all of humanity.

What we do doesn’t matter as much as how we do it; our intention. We can clean the house out of a feeling of obligation or we can clean it out of love for our family or love for life. In this way, our intention can turn any activity into a loving gift to humanity.

We can work out of a feeling of “I should work” or we can work out of the joy of being the best we can be out of gratitude for our gifts and being of service to life. The intention to serve and paint every action in loving devotion to life transforms our lives and allows for spontaneous joy to arise in every moment. Not from getting something but from the love with which we live our lives.

Today, what is something that you could transform with a loving intention? Remember, the action is irrelevant. It can be seemingly insignificant or seemingly significant. As you do this you are building up momentum. One day you are sitting on a bench when suddenly that momentum catches up and the Divine Love of God spontaneously reveals itself in a stunning revelation leaving you in tears. For there is nothing greater than recognising the Love of God.

Would you like 2022 to be a year of effortless success, love, and joy emerging and expressing itself in your life?

Coming up on the 3rd of January 2022, the 5-week live zoom program “Effortless Success Powered by Loving Devotion for Life” begins. It takes everything you have read and felt here to a much deeper place and you’ll find it very supportive of melting away all the obstacles, fears, doubts, and limiting beliefs that hold us back from effortless success — such as the idea that success is hard and requires sacrifice.

Come and experience a lighter, more uplifting, and enjoyable way to cultivate inner qualities that make success inevitable and bring us joy each step of the way. To learn more about that, you can click the link below.

https://nickshibanov.samcart.com/products/success-through-loving-devotion-to-life

This is a very powerful way to start the year on very strong foundations — the foundations of love. Why not give yourself the gift of maximum support in living a happy life of effortless success full of love and joy?

Follow your heart. If you feel this isn’t for you then I completely respect that. If you do, I look forward to seeing you soon!

Sincerely,

Nick

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Nick Shibanov

Mindfulness Practitioner | Youtube Guided Meditation | Podcasts | Mindful Coaching - nickshibanov.com