What’s the Version of Success You’re Secretly Craving… But Haven’t Fully Owned Yet?

What’s the Version of Success You’re Secretly Craving… But Haven’t Fully Owned Yet?

June 19, 20256 min read
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What’s the Version of Success You’re Secretly Craving… But Haven’t Fully Owned Yet?

“You’re a big game player” - These were the words said to me by a peer I was in conversation with a few years ago.

When I heard them, something about this message landed in my heart and in my body. It activated something in me that knew it to be true.

I knew there was a part of me - which I’ll call untapped potential - that was craving to come out. The feeling of frustration I had been experiencing had been a constant hum in the background for a number of years. - and it hadn’t been getting quieter, in fact the opposite had been happening, it was getting louder and turning into resentment, anger and self doubt.

This peer and I were talking shortly after a period of time in my life where I had been making myself smaller and slowing myself down in order to honour another person’s needs. I had been denying myself and my own life and prioritising someone else's. Where I thought I had been “solving” the frustration - the solution involved requiring another person to be different, and that was not going very well.

Six months earlier I had been woken up to that by my coach, and now here I was, with the message ringing loud and clear again through me - YOU are a big game player.

It was time to really listen to that part of me - so, I got curious with it - and asked it what it wanted - with no attachment to the answer needing to look a certain way. I truly didn’t think I knew what it wanted, other than for something in me to be unleashed. I just knew at that time what I didn’t want anymore.

My definition of playing a bigger game has nothing to do with what other people and society tell us what success looks like. It is not what Pinterest, You Tube, Facebook and Instagram tell us, and its not what our friends, family and peer groups tell us.

To me - playing a bigger game means living in alignment with what you’re being called towards - and learning to back yourself more fully.

It’s about making choices that align with who you actually are - beneath the roles, the coping strategies, and the conditioned niceness.

It’s recognising when your fear is steering, and gently but powerfully putting your deeper knowing back in the driver's seat.

It’s about developing a self-trust from within and listening to the whisper that always knows whether you’re on track or not.

Even if that is hard for other people to see, hear or be around. (And it will be for some people in your life - as growth can trigger all kinds of insecure thinking in another).

That voice of deeper wisdom gets clearer the more honest you are with yourself. When was the last time you asked; What is it that you want now - in this season of your life?

Not what has gone before, not more of what you have if it is no longer feeling like a fit. It’s about being willing to ask and - more importantly - to listen to the answers within. What would bring you alive. What would make this chapter meaningful, nourishing and fulfilling. What is your rich life? (I’m not necessarily talking about rich in the financial sense - and that might be absolutely in alignment with your true wants and dreams, there is nothing wrong with creating wealth.)

One of the byproducts that came out of my new listening was my book - Truly You, an invitation to be more of your True Self. It was released in January of 2025 and it was not the book I was advised to write by my business mentors. It went to best seller status - but more importantly to me anyway, were all the messages and stories people began sharing with me about how it had positively impacted them. Their bigger games were coming alive.

Now, it was sound advice that I was receiving logically from my mentors. I surrounded myself with people who really knew their stuff; experienced publishers, multi- 7 figure business owners. On the outside, my business model looked a certain way, my services were aimed at a certain niche, so of course the book they were encouraging me to write, was going to be in alignment with that model and niche.

But internally, what they didn’t know was that this niche wasn’t bringing me alive anymore. My work was going to take a different shape. I just hadn’t expressed it outwardly. But I knew. That deeper part of me knew. It knew that my work is about helping people let go of the narratives holding them back and step into alignment. To help them move beyond the old conditioning and into a deeper understanding of who they are and what they’re here to do. To unleash their version of contribution in a way that makes their heart sing. Can you see how I needed my own book!?

Of course there were moments of doubt. At this time, I was in a period of life that was painful - filled with loss, grief, stress, anger and confusion and yet it was also transformative - growth, realisations, insights, alignment. I had a lot of turbulence going on internally. I started to write the other book and then I stopped and started Truly You. (I didn’t have a title for it back then, just a knowing of what felt naturally to write about) I don’t remember how many times I doubted the choice and went back and started writing a little of the other book. A few times I think. Until I made a commitment to the inner knowing. And put my full trust in it. I made the decision. I backed myself and that inner knowing.

How about you? Can you stay with yourself - your deeper wisdom, your intuitive nudges - even when no one else is clapping yet?

Because if you can’t hold your vision in the quiet…

You’ll hand it over the minute someone doubts it.

You don’t need to have all the answers right now, you don’t need the who, the how and the what to make it all happen - in advance.

But if you want a life of alignment, you do need to be willing to listen to yourself differently and to see yourself differently.

Not as someone trying to prove they’re worthy.

But as someone who already is.

Already equipped. Already enough. Already capable of living the life that keeps tugging at your insides.

The most powerful move you can make in this season of your life might well be a big leap - and it might not! It might be the subtle but seismic shift of no longer needing to justify what you want.

It might be saying and owning;

  • I want to slow down and scale.

  • I want to make money and feel deeply on purpose.

  • I want to be more visible without selling out who I am.

  • I want to give myself permission to move out of the fast lane

  • It might be letting yourself want what you really want - without shame, without over-explaining, without needing anyone else to understand.

So let me ask you again, with a lot of love and a little heat and urgency (because we never truly know how much time we have left remaining:)

What’s the version of success you’re secretly craving - but haven’t fully owned yet?

And more importantly…

What could happen if you stopped pretending it wasn’t yours to want?

That’s where we begin.

I’m passionate about creating a kinder, safer world. One where people feel empowered to live fully, connect deeply, and contribute meaningfully.

As a transformational coach (PCC) and international best selling author, my work has always been rooted in helping others uncover their own inner strength and clarity, so they can lead lives filled with purpose and alignment. Individuals can feel truly seen and supported, as they navigate their personal and professional journeys.

Lisa Hopper

I’m passionate about creating a kinder, safer world. One where people feel empowered to live fully, connect deeply, and contribute meaningfully. As a transformational coach (PCC) and international best selling author, my work has always been rooted in helping others uncover their own inner strength and clarity, so they can lead lives filled with purpose and alignment. Individuals can feel truly seen and supported, as they navigate their personal and professional journeys.

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