Let me tell you that, as you know, there’s not just one definition of success and that today I won’t share its DEFINITION with you either. What I am going to do is share with all of you some of the conclusions we got to last Saturday the 26th of March at the event celebrated by Desafío más, a non-profit organization I gladly belong to. I think they will help you understand what success is.
Please, keep reading.
On Saturday the 26th of March we celebrated a new Desafío, this time in Madrid (DESAFÍO MADRID 2022), at the Albergue Sta. M. de la Paz for homeless people. To be honest, it felt amazing to reach full capacity. But it was better than that. On the one hand, we had great speakers with whom we got emotional, learnt, and had fun. On the other hand, more than 80 people accompanied us, we talked, and shared experiences, laughs, more emotions, hundreds of positive sensations, and a great day. The truth is that the joy, the happiness, and the willingness to share, learn and change the world filled a room (Aula Granada) that was “empty” a few hours before.
From the welcoming of Brother Juan Antonio Diego to the shelter, even before getting there in person, to the temporary goodbye of Mikel Alvira, president of the Desafío más association, everything was good vibes. We were a bit nervous so everything went smoothly, but there was a good mood which made that day become a great one to think and take a new path in our lives to achieve success, or should I say, happiness?
Our speakers were Alicia Gutiérrez, Javier Palop, Lourdes Reyzabal, Javier Muñoz-Calero, Adelina Ruano, Carlos Vico, Elia Cortés, Margarita Álvarez and Carmen Gutiérrez. Of course, we can’t forget our children and incredible teachers who accompany them in Laboratorio de Talentos (Santa Luisa de Marillac), their dreams, talents, interests and creative capacity.
All of them gave us some of the keys, recipes and ingredients of success. Let me share some of them with you:
Everything started with seeing success as being friends with our own ogres, knowing that vulnerability makes us strong (even though we might think it doesn’t), knowing that we have to be calm on the inside, and letting chaos explode on the outside; and knowing that we have to work with error but accepting it and learning from it. “Wise” words from our president of honour, Alicia Gutiérrez.
Javier Palop made it clear that it’s necessary to live deep success (happiness) in a key of process. That one of the primary ingredients of success is conscience, then finding meaning to what we do, and, lastly, freedom. Of course, we can’t forget our own purpose; because, if we do, what are we doing everything for?
Lourdes and Javier also taught us that purpose must be the meaning of our lives and dreams, and that our “weapons” are courage, the fight to achieve what we want, love and the strength to move forward, but also training, collaboration, connections and permanent learning from ourselves and from people surrounding us. They are part of the incredible Fundación Raíces project.
The thing is that, if success is related to happiness (they made that very clear), we should be, like Ade told us, people who live as much as possible, who are courageous and determined and who don’t give up on our own purpose, because we trust and we evolve. Like Carlos Vico said, always to improve and grow as people. Because we have to observe, be passionate, accept what we get, listen to fear and learn from it, copy those who know (yes, copy them), be brave (I’ve already said it many times, but I insist as the speakers did) and, especially, we have to apply the PAREPIA rule of our own survivor: to stop, to breathe consciously, to think and to act.
Because, as Elia said, “success is not having a lot of something, but having something of great value” and to get that, as Ade insisted, you have to go and get it, don’t complain and move forward, change whatever has to be changed, think about the path you are taking, think outside the box if necessary, find ways out and results, enjoy life and be a curious person.
I’m going to finish with a few of the ingredients Margarita Álvarez added, who also knows that success and happiness go hand in hand, and they are related to:
- what fills us
- what is good for us
- what we say to ourselves when, against all odds, we move forward, swimming as champions
- the small things we must enjoy now (not in a few hours, days or years)
- our purpose, our “for what” (yes, I’ve already told you before, but it’s necessary)
- appreciating
- listening (to fear, to ourselves and the people surrounding us and who really love us)
- looking and observing (the world, those who already went through what we did, nature)
- helping others to be happy (because I ask myself, what’s better than that?)
- stopping and thinking (remember the PAREPIA rule)
Do you understand better what success is and what isn’t? I hope you didn’t get more confused.
I’m going to end this with an “advice” from Desafío más and encourage you to keep undertaking.
“Let’s go out there with our best ourselves to change the world, which is wide and long, starting by changing the small tile where we can influence; and smiling is a great start”– Desafío más.
Translated by María Ubierna Quintanilla and supervised by Arantza Arruti.