Success - How to Define Sustainable Success
The Career Psychologist x Diageo – The Own Your Career Series
The Conditions That Hold Your Success
In the live session, you wrote down what success means to you during this season of your career.
What seems like a simple question on the surface often becomes more nuanced when you sit with it.
Most of us set goals in our professional space. We name them clearly. We want a promotion, more scope, greater impact or increased influence. Professional goals like this are important because they hold our ambition and focus our attention.
But if you want to set a career goal that asks you to work on your career, not just in it, you must widen the lens slightly.
This is where our second question began.
If this is the version of success you want to move towards, what needs to be true in your wider life for you to sustain it?
It is with that question that your career goals become more intentional.
Before you refine timelines or action steps, you must consider the conditions that hold the goal. The context within which it sits. Because your career is part of your identity, not all of it.
Three Layers of Sustainable Success:
Physical. Personal. Professional.
And the order matters.
Physical — Comes First. Always.
I use the NEST framework to keep it practical:
- Nourishment.
- Exercise or movement.
- Sleep.
- Time and energy with people who make you smile.
These are not aspirational ideals instead, consider them as the basics that allow you to think clearly, make decisions, and show up well. When these are steady, your capacity expands. When they are neglected, everything else becomes heavier.
So the first step in designing your career goal is identifying your Physical Non-Negotiable that must hold during this season.
Personal — Comes Next
This layer is more individual. It reflects your fingerprint.
It includes your work tempo. Your financial stability. Your relationships. The space in your calendar for connection and joy. It asks whether the rhythm of your life supports the direction you are choosing professionally.
If your calendar tells a different story than your definition of success, that is useful information.
You do not need to overhaul your life. You simply need to notice what must hold for success to feel worth it.
Professional — Comes Last
Only after you understand your Physical and Personal Non-Negotiables do you look at the professional layer.
What must be true in your work for you to feel connected to your progress? Growth? Development? Progression?
We will break those down in the next episode.
For now, simply check alignment.
Does your professional ambition sit comfortably inside your physical and personal reality?
The Non-Negotiable Filter
This is where the Non-Negotiable Filter becomes useful.
Before committing to a goal, run it through three quiet questions:
- Does this respect my physical needs?
- Does it align with my personal rhythm?
- Does it move me towards the professional direction I have chosen?
If the answer is yes, the goal has structure.
If something feels stretched, you adjust the design. Often it is timing, sequencing, or scope.
Career ownership is not about controlling everything. It is about being deliberate with what is within your influence.
Clarity is the first step.
When your goals are built on conditions you can sustain, progress feels steadier. More connected. More yours.
And that is what we are building here.
See you next week.
