Beyond Traditional Metrics: Crafting Sacred Measures of Success
A few years ago, I sat in my sun-filled home office, golden hour light streaming through the window, illuminating my laptop screen where I obsessively refreshed engagement metrics and scheduled posts into perfectly organised content blocks.
My laptop clock blinked 6:43 PM (I was once again running late to meet my friends) as I reviewed my quarterly figures – another record-breaking month, fully booked program, email list growing daily, every entrepreneurial metric that supposedly measured "success" proudly ticked off. Check!
That same evening, I found myself perched on the edge of my friend's worn leather sofa, a mug of mulled wine untouched in my hands. Fairy lights twinkled in the corner, familiar faces were soft in their light.
The sound of laughter and story-sharing swirled around me – tales of dating mishaps, work dramas, holiday plans – yet I sat there numb and disconnected from it all, as if watching the scene through a frosted window, my mind pre-occupied with instagram posts, my to-do lists, my next goal.
My perfectly organised planner sat heavy in my bag - haunting me even here. On paper, I was "crushing it". In reality, I felt hollowed out.
The irony wasn't lost on me – I'd left my stressful social work career to escape the tyranny of targets and outcomes, only to recreate the same grinding pressure in my own business.
My body was sending clear signals – shoulders so tense they touched my ears, nights spent staring at the ceiling at 3 AM, a constant knot of anxiety lodged beneath my ribs whenever I wasn't working – I had become so caught up in measuring metrics that I could no longer hear what my own body and soul was trying to tell me.
That moment, watching my friends enjoy themselves from behind my glass wall, became my wake-up call.
I realised I had masterfully learned to track everything except what truly mattered: connection, meaning, peace.
What if we've been measuring success all wrong?
In a world obsessed with metrics - followers, revenue, growth charts, productivity scores - I believe we've forgotten something crucial: these measurements were created for machines, not living beings.
They were designed for factories, not our human souls.
And like all tools of standardisation, they often serve systems of extraction rather than flourishing.
So, how do we measure success when we're no longer trying to fit into systems that weren't designed for us?
What if instead of tracking:
Hours worked
Tasks completed
Revenue generated
Goals achieved
We measured:
Depth of presence
Quality of energy
Alignment with natural rhythm
Sovereignty and courage in our choices
Authenticity in our expression
Spaciousness in our days
Joy … what if we tracked and measured our joy?!
What if success in 2025 wasn't about reaching external benchmarks, but about creating conditions where our essence can finally flourish?
Here are some of the alternative metrics I've been exploring:
The Sovereignty Metric: How often did I honour my natural rhythm instead of forcing myself into culture’s pace? Did I make choices from deep knowing rather than external pressure? Was I able to trust my intuition as wisdom?
The Energy Metric: Am I offering from overflow rather than depletion? Does my work energise rather than exhaust me? Can I feel my life force expanding rather than contracting?
The Presence Metric: Was I fully here for the moments that mattered? Did I create space to savour experiences rather than rush through them? Could I feel deeply connected to my work and those I serve?
The Authenticity Metric: Did I allow my true nature to guide my choices? Was I able to express my voice? Did I offer my medicine without diluting it?
Maybe this isn’t about rejecting traditional measures of success.
But about expanding our definition to include what actually matters to our souls: connection, meaning, peace.
It's about creating metrics that honour our humanity rather than suppress it.
When we measure success only by external metrics, we risk missing what truly makes life worth living. We might achieve all the recognised markers of success while missing our true calling entirely.
This time of year is perfect to turn inwards and begin to craft your own sacred metrics:
What feels like success in your body?
When do you feel most alive and aligned?
What conditions / environments allow your talents to flourish?
How does your soul measure thriving?
Remember: the very qualities that make you "inefficient" by conventional metrics might be essential to your unique contribution. Your different rhythm, your need for space, your sensitivity - these aren't flaws to optimise away. They're crucial elements of your medicine.
The world doesn't need us to become better at meeting standardised metrics. It needs us to become more fully ourselves. It needs our unique genius, not our standardised performance. It needs our authentic medicine, not our optimised output.
So perhaps the most important metric of all is this: Am I becoming more fully who I truly am? Am I creating conditions where my essence can flourish? Am I offering my gifts from a place of easeful authenticity?
Because true success isn't about measuring up to external standards.
It's about creating standards that measure what truly matters to our souls.
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How I can help you embody this approach:
A winter invitation:
"Rest and Receive" - a cozy six-week winter container for ambitious women who've worked hard all year and are longing to reconnect with what truly matters for 2025.
Through guided weekly practice and live 'wild idling' sessions, we'll create sacred space for you to exhale, process, contemplate, and access your deepest wisdom. No performance metrics, no optimization - just pure, nourishing restoration.
Experience a more relaxed festive season, and start 2025 replenished and reconnected.
Live sessions begin December 11th 2024, Tuesdays 5:30-7:00pm UK time.
All sessions: December: 11th & 18th, January: 8th, 15th & 22nd
