Hey, Lovely Simplerista,

We all want to be successful, right?

But what does that even mean?

Our culture tends to define success a certain, and quite limited way. If we say someone’s “successful”, what we tend to mean is, they have a lot of money, they’re probably showing it, and they might also be famous.

We overlook that behind the surface they’re completely miserable, their health and marriage are in ruins, their kids hate them, and they’re not expressing their true essence.

Don’t let that happen to you. Start by scrapping any preconceived notion you have of what success looks like.

Personally, I grew up with quite “successful” parents, but emotionally it felt like there was no-one home, there was no connection, no intimacy. So I decided, unconsciously, that I’d never be successful, because I thought that successful meant lack of connection. Thank god I managed to unravel that one.

One thing that was super helpful to me was to redefine “successful” to simply meaning “doing what you set out to do”.

So if you set out to create a business that makes you $60k/year, that transforms people’s lives, and that lets you spend a lot of time on other things, and you do that, then you’re 100% unequivocally successful no matter what anyone else might tell you.

So what does being successful look like for you?

Is it being able to travel and work? Making a difference in other people’s lives? Making a certain amount of money a month? Having a certain amount of money in the bank? Having lots of free time to be with or home school your kids? Or having the freedom to do something else you really want?

Whatever it is for you, take some time to feel into and define what exactly success looks and feels like to you. What do you most want to feel? What do do you want to do that you think will make you feel this way?

New Features in Simplero

We just launched our fancy image editor that lets you crop, scale, vignette, change colors, and do a bunch more editing on photos, right from within the editor you use to write your newsletters and content pages in your spaces.

We've also added some details to make it easier to see and understand what's going on in your automations.

Random Links from around the Interwebs

Steven Pinker: The world is safer than it's ever been. Read the article, it's well worth it. It may feel like the world is going to hell in a handbasket, but the numbers tell a different story. Yes, it does look like there's been a slight uptick in the past year, but it's nothing compared to what it was like just a few decades ago.

Also, media coverage of mass shootings and terror attacks encourages more of the same. Thanks, media! I remember reading the same with suicides. In the days following highly publicized suicides, there's a measurable uptick in suicides.

Speaking of, a study by Karolinska Institute almost 20 years ago found a direct correlation between birth trauma and later suicide or other self-inflicted early death. Wow. I'm spending a few days with Katie Hendricks, and she pointed me to this.

In other, lighter news: What a Scan of Sting's Brain Teaches Us About Music. The answer: Nothing much. "This song is a bit like this other song." I felt let down by the title, but I want to read the book now, and I do love Sting, so, hey.

Have a fantastic week. It looks like it's going to be absolutely killer!

Lots of love,
–Calvin