Exploring Success: It’s More Than Just Meeting Goals

What is success?

What is success? This question fueled a conversation with my family the night before Thanksgiving. Picture it, the 4 of us, 2 middle aged social workers, one retired teacher and a retired military officer sitting around a table discussing success. As you can probably imagine our views of success were similar (they are my parents and wife after all!) Even with significant agreement, we definitely had differences with how we view and prioritize what is seen as successful. 

I think we all agreed (after some conversation) that success is complex with multiple ways to view it, and different areas in which we strive for success. Some aspects of success we discussed: financial stability, having a safe place to live, having a community, having a positive impact on people around us, having some sense of meaning, purpose and competence. How each of us defined success in those areas was slightly different, and looking at how each of us prioritizes those in our lives guides what we do. The goals we set in these areas and what we see as important will influence how we define success or failure. 

How do you define success?

Take a few minutes. Ask yourself, how do you define success? 

What areas of life do you prioritize? 

What does it take to be successful? 

How does success impact your life and your actions?

Is achieving a goal success?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary success is: the achievement of a goal. Is success simply achieving a goal? Is it a specific outcome?  Everyone will have their own individual definition of success that may even change based on the situation.

Narrowing our focus to our athletic lives, If I finish a race in a desired time, was I successful? Yes, if finishing time was the only measuring stick for success. What if I finished that race in the desired time because I was ruthless on course, not true to my values of treating others with respect? Was I still successful? I would argue that no, I was not successful.

If I have a goal of dead lifting a certain weight, am I successful if I never hit that weight but I do gain muscle, challenge myself, learn new skills and make new friends? Technically, no I was not successful, but I would see it as a success. Although the big goal (lifting a specific weight) was not achieved, the smaller steps (aka process goals) were met. 

If success is only measured by meeting the big goal we would miss the nuance of the rest of our life. We would be assessing success by only one metric. I don’t know about you, but the success of my life is measured in many different ways.

How athletes define success

I asked some friends, all female endurance athletes, how they define success. Everyone had a similar response: success is not defined simply by finishing a race. 

Some of their responses were:

“Success is weighing the options and deciding which one to follow - make the best choice at the time and LIVE with it”

“I ended up in the back with a woman who was doing her 1st ever gravel race and told me she wouldn’t have finished if I hadn’t been there with her. So that day was still a success to me, just not the one I planned”

“My time goal was obliterated by mile 15. I readjusted my goal and mindset to finishing and helping others”

“I didn’t panic and kept control of the bike, and respected my limits. Super successful day”

“Success on bikes is setting a goal, doing everything I can to prepare for it and then not quitting if things don’t go as planned”

Challenge, adversity, values and integrity

What I believe, and what I see from my very unscientific study, is that success is setting a challenging goal, taking steps to achieve that goal, and adjusting when adversity comes, while staying true to your values and leaning into your integrity.

Let me know your thoughts? How do you view success? Have you ever found success from what at first appeared to be a failure?