I Was An Addict.

This may come as a shock to many of my followers, but I am not afraid to share my authentic self so I can help others learn from my mistakes.

For many years I was addicted. I was addicted to success and what it took to achieve success in my previous career. Of course, I recognize this is not your typical battle of addiction, which can mean life or death in some cases. However, what I experienced is a real struggle for many and it does impact your mental well-being.

In my case, I experienced fulfillment via the chase of adding another zero to my paycheck and the collection of trophies on my desk showing that I had been recognized for hitting the KPIs I was assigned.  

It became my central focus on everything in my life. It was a vicious cycle of striving for achievement, meeting that goal, only to be left with the feeling of I had not done enough despite my momentary success – I needed to do it again!

I collected crystal awards and the more I could get at the end of the year, the more I felt fulfilled. The challenge was that the feeling of fulfillment only lasted for a short while and often felt shallow.

I was "under the influence" of achieving my own greatness and intoxicated by the thrill of the chase in achieving my success. 

One day, I finally realized what I should have been focusing on and how I should be a leader to help others achieve what they wanted. So, what finally woke me up and helped me see that the success I was addicted to wasn’t what was truly meaningful in life?

Life experiences changed my perspective on what success really meant. It was a mind shift that I went through. My quest for success shifted to chasing significance in my life and forced me to rethink what I valued most in this precious life.

You see, true fulfillment does not come from money, material things, or the big titles which are bestowed upon us. I started to see that life was short and those flashes of professional successes could not last forever, and they only gave me that "high" for so long until it wore off.  

I will never forget my mentor teaching me the power of serving others, but until then, I honestly did not know what they meant or how to think that way.

I decided to test the waters and try a new path to see if I could find a more permanent high to fit into my life: servant leadership.

I started to put others before me, performed small acts of kindness for others, and spread joy as often as I could.

What I noticed by these little deeds was they provided me with something I was looking for all along — lasting fulfillment.

This shift in how I looked at success had to start within me. I had to learn to be bigger on the inside so I could be bigger on the outside, and that took intentionality.

Now I am living life under the influence of serving others and let me say, it is more addicting than ever!

In this quest for internal fulfillment, I have interviewed amazing servant leaders who have taught me some tips along the way. I have created a new series in the Coffee with Kelly shop called The Servant Leader Series where I invite great servant leaders who are out there leading through people first. I hope you will join me for our next interview on November 20th when I share another incredible servant leader with you, Madison Workman, who will share some great leadership tips in the coffee shop. You can register here.

I hope to see you there!

Kelly