Conditions For Success: A simple way to measure alignment

Conditions For Success is a topic I've touched on in planning workshops over the years. It was inspired by a quote attributed to the Irish poet of the Victorian age, Oscar Wilde:

"Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result."

When I saw it, I felt this desire to prove or disprove the notion.

I mean, really? Can it be THAT easy?

In nature, we can see that some seeds bloom and grow while others - from the same plant - won't. We easily say "well, the conditions weren't right for the seed to grow." 

Can this also apply to humans?
Apparently, yes... with an asterisk.

For years, I've led planning workshops and retreats where I've asked clients to consider their conditions for success in a generic way. Maybe they do their best work when they've had a cup of coffee first thing in the morning, or if they get to bed by 9pm and get eight hours of sleep. The focus was on things that were obvious and apparent - things they could control.

The logic being that when you know the conditions that set you up for success, it gives you more power to create or establish those conditions for yourself in an intentional way.

Some clients were able to take this rather generic assessment and run with it, while others still met challenges that made it difficult, if not impossible for them to create conditions that allowed them to thrive.

Why Awareness of Your Conditions for Success Matter

That's when I started thinking there might be something deeper at play. In our imperfect world, there are downright hostile conditions that make it impossible for almost anyone to thrive. And yet, there are a handful of people who can manage even despite those conditions.

There's a lot of "Darwinian, survival-of-the-fittest-type stuff" that's been baked into our world. Our culture, our communities. It's why we see the deep need for accessibility legislation and other resources to help people that are NOT optimized to function under those conditions to at least get by (or subsist, as is the case in many places where unaffordable housing is the rule, not the exception).

As I became more aware of these systemic issues, I recognized that there are some conditions we can control or influence, and others that we can't - at least, not at the individual level.

Turns out, your Conditions for Success aren’t just about energy, tools, or mindset—they include the world you choose to live and work in. Sometimes, the smartest move isn’t more effort, it’s moving toward contexts that naturally amplify your zone of genius or your ability to find success for yourself or your work.

In my exploration and research, I've identified 7 domains that range from the highly personal (that we can control) to the more global (where we have minimal individual influence).

The 7 Domains of Conditions For Success

• Core Domains, which revolve around Identity and Purpose. These are the things we have the most control over. We can decide how we want to show up in the world and who we want to be. We can seek to align our identity and purpose in the world in ways that others have little to no direct control over.
• Personal Domains, which concern your physical, mental, emotional, and cognitive conditions. We have a good deal of control here, but not everything is within our power to control. If we are navigating a physical illness, for example, we can't control the outcome of the illness. The best we can do is influence the outcome through our actions to create the best possible environment for healing and recovery.
• Operational Domains - your work environment, tools, resources, and logistics. We have some control over these domains because we are the ones setting them up and interacting with them. In some cases we have limited control because we are not the ones setting them up. We are, instead, engaging in domains set up by others, and therefore can only seek to influence the domains we cannot control.
• Relational/Social Domains that deal with interactions with other people. We have some control over these domains and a good bit of influence because we interact with them directly, but because other people are involved, we can't control them.
• Capital Domains That deal with interactions with institutions (like financial or legal). We have some influence over these domains because we interact with them directly and they are not generally controlled by a single individual.
• Systemic/Macro Domains - like industry trends, political environments, and cultural norms. We have little to no control over these systems directly, but may be able to influence them or move to places where conditions are more favorable for us.

This helped me see where things were falling short with my clients' Conditions for Success. When you're in a Macro domain where the deck's stacked against you, it's a much harder slog. You can do everything "right" in your Core and Personal Domains, and still struggle more than someone who is operating in a Macro Domain that offers them more favorable conditions.

Applying Conditions for Success To Your Situation

That's not to say that those personal things don't matter in those cases. In fact, they are even more important! While I'll stop short of saying you can create your own parallel society, I will say that the more aligned you can be with your personal Conditions For Success, the less friction there is for you to deal with. If you don't have to fight your Core or Personal Domains, that's less friction in your day-to-day. If there's less friction, that energy's freed up so that you can use your spoons to deal with the bigger, systemic conditions that are out of alignment.

Will it solve every problem? No. But the goal is minimal friction, not a problem-free existence. I'm not sure anyone can promise that!

Consider where you might be out of alignment. What's one small step you can take this week, today, right now even, to improve your Conditions for Success?