There comes a point where success is no longer measured by what you’ve achieved, but by the person you’re continuing to become.
Many people spend years working towards a vision of the life they want. They build the business, establish their career, create financial security and achieve the milestones that once felt so significant. Eventually they arrive at a place they once dreamed about, only to discover that growth hasn’t stopped calling them forward.
That doesn’t mean they’re ungrateful for what they’ve created. It simply means they’ve reached another chapter where the questions begin to change.
Instead of asking, “How do I achieve more?” they begin asking, “What’s next for me?”
It’s a conversation I’ve had with hundreds of business owners, executives and leaders over the years, and it was one of the themes that emerged when I sat down with Benita Bensch on the stage in 2019.
At the time, Benita had just achieved something extraordinary. Only days earlier, she had launched her first book, The Art of Trying, which became an international bestseller across Australia, Canada and Germany. What had started as a simple goal to finally finish writing the book had grown into something much bigger over the course of twelve months.
As exciting as that achievement was, it wasn’t the part of Benita’s story that stayed with me.
What stayed with me was what happened before she ever wrote the final chapter.
Benita spoke openly about a season of life that so many people will recognise. She and her husband had built the life they had worked incredibly hard to create. They were raising four young boys on their family cattle property, surrounded by everything they had once hoped for. Yet alongside the gratitude was a growing awareness that she had stopped growing herself. She described living in survival mode, putting her own aspirations aside while simply getting through each day, and wrestling with the feeling that there was still something within her she hadn’t yet expressed.
One comment, in particular, has stayed with me ever since.
“I thought, we’ve done it. I was so happy. But yet there was this feeling like there’s something missing. I felt so guilty about that because I’d got what I wanted. Why wasn’t I content?”
I think many high-performing people have experienced some version of that feeling.
There is often an assumption that once we achieve the goals we’ve been working towards, we’ll finally feel complete. Yet growth doesn’t work that way. Every stage of life invites us to expand again, to think differently and to discover new possibilities for ourselves. The challenge is recognising that desire for growth isn’t something to suppress. It’s often pointing us towards the next version of who we’re capable of becoming.
For Benita, everything began to shift when she made the decision to invest in herself. After six years of carrying the idea for her book, she finally committed to bringing it to life. Within just two weeks, she had identified her first goal, and over the following twelve months she transformed an idea she had been carrying for years into a published book that reached international bestseller status.
As our conversation continued, she reflected on one of the greatest gifts she had received throughout the process.
“I’m allowed to want more, to think more, to do more.”
I believe those words resonate far beyond writing a book.
Whether your next chapter involves growing your business, stepping into greater leadership, creating more freedom, strengthening your relationships or simply becoming more of the person you know you’re capable of being, every meaningful change begins in exactly the same place. It begins with the way we think about ourselves and the decisions we’re willing to make from that place.
When this interview was recorded, Benita had recently completed Thinking Into Results, the coaching program I was teaching at the time. Over the years that followed, I continued to refine that work through my experience coaching leaders across Australia and internationally. Today, those principles have evolved into The GPS for New Success, a comprehensive 17-week coaching experience that brings together the most effective tools, strategies and thinking I’ve developed to help people create meaningful, lasting change from the inside out.
Benita’s story is a reminder that extraordinary results rarely begin with extraordinary circumstances. They begin when we decide that our growth matters, that our future deserves our attention and that the life we’ve created so far doesn’t have to be the limit of what’s possible.
I hope you’ll take the time to watch our conversation. Whether you see yourself in Benita’s story or recognise parts of your own, I think you’ll come away with a renewed appreciation for what becomes possible when you’re willing to continue growing.
→ Watch my full conversation with Benita from the stage below.
Ready for Your Next Chapter?
If Benita’s story resonated with you, perhaps it’s because you’ve reached a point where you know you’re capable of more.
The GPS for New Success is my 17-week coaching experience for leaders, business owners and professionals who are ready to strengthen their self-image, challenge the thinking that’s keeping them where they are and create meaningful results in every area of life.
This isn’t about adding more to your to-do list. It’s about developing the thinking that allows you to create a different future.
