I’ve just returned from a glorious few days on the North Coast of NSW attending the inaugural Australian Naturopathic Summit.  It was a fantastic event with naturopaths from all around the country coming together to share their experiences, their expertise and their excitement at the way the profession is progressing.

I’ve come away with a sense of tremendous excitement, not only on how to make my practice and treatments successful, but on what success means to me.  Success means something different for every person and over the course of those few days I had the opportunity to think about what it meant to me.

For the most part, success to me means a practice that is sustainable and stable (I know my patients aren’t vanishing and my patients know I’m not vanishing!), but now I see that for my definition of success there’s a large dollop of balance required.  As some of you know, my third baby arrived on NYE last year and my priorities and plans had to change significantly.  While these were big adjustments, they were not bad in and of themselves.  I’m still working on my balance of the various facets of my life – work, study, family, friends, self – but I think I’m finally achieving some measure of success there.   The professional side of success will take more time, but the personal side of success is a lifelong task that I think I’m finally understanding.  After all – it’s only taken me 30-something years so far…

So what does success mean to you?  How do you measure it?  How do you know when you’ve attained it?