How do you define success?

When I reflect on my Airbnb business that I ran in Morocco, one guest that always comes to mind is Gorke. Gorke and his partner were on a round-the-world trip and at every place of accommodation, he asked these questions to his hosts:

How do you define success?

What does a successful career look like to you?

We contemplated this question over dinner. He asked everyone in the room to think for a few minutes. "If you had no limits, and you could make 10 times more than you are making now, what is it that you would pursue?"

I sat there for a second. He told us to say the first thing that came to mind, which for me was “woodland nymph” to which he gave a quizzical look and then laughed.

I thought about it some more, and said: Dance Therapist. I want to travel the world and use movement therapy to touch the lives of others.

I didn't really know why that answer came at the time. I wasn't even sure this “career” existed, but who’s to say it couldn't be invented?

I reflect on this conversation now three years later, and am in awe of the job I was able to manifest this past year: Professional dance teacher, and to be even more accurate: Dance Therapist. I never thought that I would be able to instruct one of the art forms I loved, and that I could heal and empower others through my passion for movement and dance.

This reality got me thinking.

There really are no limits as to what we can manifest in our lives. What do you really want? Are you "following your bliss" as Joseph Campbell would say? How many of us are actually in a career where we are happy? How many of us go about our mundane lives, on autopilot, not really alive, not really doing what it is that makes our hearts sing?

What is stopping us? What is holding us back from our dream life? Only ourselves. Only our mind sets limitations on what we believe we can or cannot do. Free your mind, expand it, and focus on what you want. "Where intention goes, energy flows."

I've thought about it more and have concluded that success really isn't tied to a job, in the way that Gorke insinuated it was. Success is following your bliss, having joy inside, no matter your circumstances in life. Success, like joy, is a state of being, it is something you cultivate on the inside.

Meknes, Morocco