Not just differently in terms of how we view other peoples’ success but also how we recognise it within ourselves, or where we perceive ourselves to be in relationship to that ‘goal’. Our ‘identifiers’ will be as unique as we are. What we’ve had modelled within our family, first & foremost, then maybe our peers and our profession. We renovate and remodel our ideas as we go, through our own experiences & evolution.
I asked AI to list the most successful naturopaths in Australia & a ‘curious’ conversation ensued...
The first list it generated crowned Amie Steel our 👑 thanks to her incredible contribution to research & academia. Next up an extremely high-profile naturopath that, no doubt, came to AI’s attention as a result of the enormous number of ads they run. Last on the list, a dragnet of names pulled from association newsletters and other media. However, not ALL associations, just ANPA and NHAA?! And nobody tell him, but Kerry didn’t make the cut 🤐
When I pointed out this omission (and several others!) the LLM always of course had an answer…
It went along the lines of, “Oh, I see the problem, you’re defining success differently”
Naturally, followed by, “I can generate a new list based on your definition” (just you watch😂)
But throughout this exchange I was force-fed clues about how ‘it’ would define success, including some brutal-truths apparently I needed to hear, such as, “Clinics alone rarely compete financially with product, IP, or corporate power.” Am I being overly-woke & it’s actually just all about the cold hard Ca$h?…I’ve seen behind the veil too many times to be fooled by that one. Attributions of success based on visible bling can blind us to the rest of the story.
I’ve sat with a LOT of naturopaths I would regard as successful.
I’ve seen their success take different shapes & forms – independent of their income
For example, 20+ years of consulting that has seen them through all the stages & phases of their family life, with the flexibility they needed. Or establishing a practice that was able to employ others, better yet, ‘bring them up’ with loads of support, informal mentoring and great modelling that can otherwise be hard to find in our profession. There are those whose love of learning & growth ensured they found all kinds of pivot points along the path – resulting in time spent in corporate, in academia, in aspects of associated industry etc. Then there’s those that started out in stella-supporting roles for others, running those desks, those dispensaries, those website dashboards like divas! – only to at last be ready to take flight and do the thing they wanted all along – be in practice. And, of course, there are amongst us some awesome entrepreneurs who might make it look like they’re living it large on 🚩Easy St, but in fact, they are themselves absolutely extraordinary powerhouses fuelled by their own sense of purpose. And these are just the conversations I had last week!
Tell me what shape and form has your success taken?
Image by Javier Esteban via Unsplash
