Success is a widely popular theme in our twenty-first century. Media emphasize the value of success through the envy of sports stars, entertainment moguls and people who gather fans through seemingly mundane activities (YouTube can validate this).
But what exactly is success?
A bit of investigation will reveal a pattern of success not easily defined. For the golfer, success may be winning the tournament cup. For a director, it could mean capturing the ideal shot from the best angle. For a swimmer, success may be taking home the gold medal. It could also mean increasing stroke speed by .99999 seconds.
What this all means is success is relative. Someone being successful is determined by whatever the goal is, and by the people who acknowledge it. Success really is a mind game.
Take your job, for example. If you have weekly, monthly or annual accolades given to employees, it is because they met a certain level of expectation; these expectations had to be accepted by the “judges,” your management. Take management away, the expectation away and your perception of that goal as success away, and success disappears.
Since success is so fickle, I challenge you to think in terms of accomplishing rather than succeeding. When you set a goal and reach it, no matter how small, you accomplish. The habit of setting tasks and completing them one-by-one is to be accomplished. When you focus your energies on accomplishing tasks that lead to your main goal, you inevitably reach success.
This article was written by Trent A. Rhodes.
