For years my identity—and how I measured success—was tied to my salary.

No matter what was required of me to earn it; putting my physical and mental health on the backburner, missing precious moments with family and friends, or selling my soul to climb the corporate ladder—as long as the pay stubs came in, I told myself to be grateful, to keep on trucking along.

I was on the road to success, or at least the road I thought I was supposed to be on.

Turns out, it was the road to success that often leads to disappointment, discontentment, and burnout.

Not the kind of success that fulfills and nourishes your spirit and soul in the long term, or, decades into the future.

In the first part of my career as a corporate professional, I was driven by success through achievement. In this phase of my career as a coach and entrepreneur, I’m driven by success with deep fulfillment.

There’s a big difference.

In Robert Ellis’ book Coaching With Essence, he defines the road to success as living from essence, abundance, service and trust.

For me, it captures the meaning of success beautifully, completely.

Lately, I’ve traded 65 hour work-weeks for 65 hour mom-weeks, being in the flow of life with our 15 month old, with an average of 15-20 hours devoted to serving and creating clients in my business I cherish and love.

What I bring in now wouldn’t necessarily pass my prior measurement for success, but it rivals the hourly of some of the highest-paid professionals, working a fraction of the time. This amazes me, and fills me with gratitude.

But more importantly, within all of that, there is space for cooking unrushed meals, connecting with old and new friends, long daily walks under the sun, travel, and growing and learning new things.

Things like pickleball (my back swing is terrible), cooking with cast iron (I’m a late adopter), and reading books that have been sitting patiently on the bookshelf (some I actually had to dust off).

In a nutshell: more space for essence, abundance, service and trust.

And for me, and for many of my clients in 2024, there’s no greater measurement of success to us than that.