Success
“Be proactive, you have to take charge of your future.” ~Bo Porter, former MLB player
My resume is unconventional, but at its core is discipline. I jumped into each endeavor with full force, committed to making it “work”. For a time, that meant punching the 9-5 to make the side hustle happen, becoming a sports reporter was the goal. Then, when the side hustle became the full-time job, I gave up my personal life, spending nights and weekends crisscrossing the country to prove that I could make it.
Every year I defined success as achieving your dreams and compromising nothing to get there. Yes, money is important, but it never drove me. Instead, I held the firm belief that if I made the dream happen, the money would follow.
To me, success meant becoming a reporter and the more I shared my dream with others, the more it defined who I was. The endorsements pushed me further; everyone in my circle thought what I was doing was “cool” and that became my motivation. Somewhere along the way though, I lost myself in other people’s opinions.
The truth is, COVID was the best thing that happened to me; to my career. Suddenly, travel and sports came to a halt and I had an excuse to escape. There was no need to explain to the outside world “why I would EVER leave such a cool job?!?”
“COVID made me do it.”
I was out of a job, but for the first time in a long time, I felt relief.
For so long, I held the belief that success was job-dependent, not life-dependent. I used to think those who chose the 9-5 were settling, not brave enough to strive for something greater. Now I envy their ability to recognize what will make them happy. Defining those choices, not as settling, but instead, success.
“Successful people fight through adversity and get beyond the negative things that happen. It’s called Fortitude.” ~Bo Porter, former MLB player
The thing is, what you do for a living doesn’t define who you are and none of this is the final destination because success is not linear or finite. It’s a living breathing part of life and just like everything else that’s alive, it will evolve and change. Embrace it, listen to it, and allow it to inform your next move.
Become a reporter = success (and I did it!) but that same job sent me into a deep depression. It wasn’t that I couldn’t fight through the adversity, there was plenty of that behind the scenes, but I wasn’t just ‘happy to be there’ anymore; instead I recognized that I had earned my spot. When the narrative shifts from I’m just happy to be here to I deserve to be here, the dynamic changes, your power changes, your life changes.
Fighting through adversity is equally about failing, processing that failure, and getting back up as it is about recognizing that what you’re doing is the wrong thing and changing your path. There is no glory in suffering, but there is always a lesson.
Success isn’t simply about doing the work, it’s about recognizing opportunity, and seizing it when it strikes. I became a reporter because when I found myself in a FOX production studio with a client, I left the client and introduced myself to the producers and directors, asked questions and left an impression. Doesn’t matter how you get in the room, but once you’re in there, it’s up to you to do something with it.
The dots ALWAYS connect and when they do, your next move will be executed flawlessly.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. Believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.” ~ Steve Jobs
[Written :: 2020.08.10]
You can find more of her work at shannonmford.com