What does success look like in 2023?

New Year’s resolutions often revolve around weight loss, exercise, or finances. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Yet resolutions are different from success.

When you begin to define what success looks like in 2023, it will bring you to such questions as: What habits do I need to change? What resources do I need to have?

As we return to business as usual – meeting deadlines, carpooling children or grandchildren, making resolutions to pay off those credit card bills and lose those extra pounds – let’s also remember special moments with someone you love

Let me tell you about Zion and Shiloh

Their mother did drugs, their father did drugs, and these two babies were going to be wards of the State. That’s when Mike and Mel stepped in. No, they couldn’t let that happen.

They became foster parents. They filled out all the papers and slogged through the red tape. After a year they became adoptive parents and Zion and Shiloh had a new home.

That’s quite an achievement – and a different way to define success.

Charlotte Lankard in “The Oklahoman” tells the story of a father from Tulsa:

His young daughter had been trying to get his attention when he was working on a project with a looming deadline that could not be postponed. She had found a bug outside that was unlike anything she'd ever seen, and she wanted him to stop and come and look with her.

The father said his response over and over, was. “I can't. I'm too busy. Later.” But his daughter would not give up. And finally, she said in a quiet voice, “Daddy, bugs don't wait for us.”

He left his work and went with his daughter. Later in life he said he could not remember the project he was busy with, but he had never forgotten that moment he shared with his daughter.

So what does success look like? Success for me means a specific number of clients in my counseling practice and intentional steps to maintain good health

Your definition of success may come from a determination to make a difference in someone’s life. And it can. Just ask Zion and Shiloh. Ask Mike and Mel. Ask the dad from Tulsa.

Instead of setting New Year’s Resolutions or goals for the new year, ask yourself this question: “What Does Success Look Like in 2023?”

Barbra Russell, MA LPC