Success According to Who

Success According to Who? The checklist was never actually about your life. It was about a picture someone else framed. In this episode of Shameless Reinvention, Sharon and Sonya go after a question most of us never stop to ask: who actually handed us our definition of success, and does it still fit? They trace it back to the source, parents and what got praised or punished in the household, church and the pressure of a life that has to look a certain kind of blessed, school asking a five year old what she wants to be when she barely knows who she is yet, and then social media turning the whole thing into a highlight reel with a follower count attached. They name the checklist most of us were handed without ever agreeing to it. The degree. The career. The relationship. The house in the right neighborhood. The title in front of your name or behind it. The salary to match. And they ask the harder question underneath all of it. When you actually checked those boxes, did it feel like something, or did the applause leave you standing in a room full of people feeling completely alone. Sharon and Sonya get personal about what happened when the old checklist stopped checklisting. Sonya on running her first marathon at fifty two, after ten half marathons, and what it meant that nobody on that course asked about her title. Sharon on finally going to the doctor after years of choosing meetings over mammograms, and what it cost her to keep ignoring the bill her body was sending. Both of them on the new list they are building instead. Peace. Health. Time. Relationships. Purpose. Freedom. Not one of those was ever on the original checklist. This episode ends with two journal prompts you will want pen and paper for. What success have you inherited, and where did it come from. What success are you actually choosing, not performing, not inheriting, choosing. If this one lands with you, subscribe, leave a review, and send it to someone still measuring their life with somebody else's ruler. New episodes drop every Friday. Shameless Reinvention is hosted by Sharon LaSure Roy and Sonya Seymour. Follow us and send your story to [email protected]. We read every message.