Last year, I reformulated my definition of “success.”

In the past, “success” was based on something external to me.  I got the job.  I scored the high grade or the role I auditioned for or won the jury trial I was prosecuting.

If I didn’t get “that thing,” it meant something was wrong with me.  I hadn’t done enough, or performed well enough, or been enough.

In other words, my drive for success was (unconsciously) to fill an inner lack.

I needed “that thing” to know I was enough.  Loved.  Worthy.  Valuable.  Important.

Despite my “success” as a bulldog-in-a-skirt criminal prosecutor who loved what I did, my soul had other plans for my life.  Everything I had always clung to in order to know myself began to fall away one by one.  My identity was crumbling.  It needed to crumble.

Why?  Because my identity was based purely on my human self.  I let my head dictate what I was supposed to do or who I was supposed to be.  My head was full of ideas.  Other people’s expectations.  Images of “success” or “beauty” or “perfection.”

Meanwhile, my soul had very different desires for my life.  Ones that didn’t conform to societal pressures to keep running on a hamster wheel that never stopped turning in the same direction.

It wanted off.  It wanted to forge a new path.  It wanted me to stop seeing myself through the eyes of the world, and to start seeing myself through the eyes of my soul.

Over and over again, I have let go of everything.  I have shed identity after identity.  I have transformed belief after belief.  I have faced and called back soul parts from long ago.  I have accessed a power inside of me I didn’t even know existed.

At times, my life has looked anything but successful when measured against societal norms (or spiritual propaganda that tells us we’re doing everything “right” when we have everything we are told to want).

Yet, when I look back, every single hardship was a gift from my soul.  Every single moment sobbing on my living room floor at yet another loss opened the portal of my heart even wider.  Every single moment of not having what I (my ego) wanted led me to source from within.

In other words, I stopped searching outside of myself for love, value, worth, power, belonging, and safety.

The only way I could do this was by accessing and trusting the wisdom of my body.  My body connected me with my soul’s truth and released me from the limitations of my ego.

Since I left the legal profession over 10 years ago, there have been so many moments where all I had – literally – was pure devotion to my soul’s freedom.  I’m not concerned anymore with success as it has been defined by society: having more, doing more, being more.

I am already enough as I Am.  And so are you.

My current definition of “success” is:

*  I am in union with my Self

*  I speak my truth

*  I fulfill my soul’s mission (which is me showing up fully as me)

Perhaps my definition will help you define your own.  With the beginning of the New Year, you have the opportunity to decide how you want to live based on your internal authority.

Sovereignty is not being led by others (or your ego aka your head).  Sovereignty is being led by your soul (which is accessed through your heart-body).

Much love and wishes for a bountiful New Year,

Jessica