SAL Definition of Success

What is your personal and/or professional
definition of SUCCESS?

What does it mean to be successful?

In other words, what do YOU believe that you have to do, be, or accomplish in order to qualify as a personal or professional success?

This is a good and important question to ask oneself, and there are no limits to the variety of answers that human beings can and do provide to this question.

Unfortunately, many people make it almost impossible for themselves to feel successful because of the unrealistically high expectations that are placed upon themselves by others, or that they choose to place upon themselves.

For example, think of someone you know who will never consider him or herself a success until he or she has acquired a certain amount (usually an unnecessarily large amount) of financial resources or material possessions. Or think about those who will never view themselves as being successful until they have attained a certain job, career title, hierarchical position, or relationship? And what about those who are continually living in the shadows of other people, and who refuse to allow themselves to feel successful until they have accomplished some unrealistic standard that someone else (in whose shadow they choose to live) has previously accomplished.

One of the most important SAL lessons I have ever learned—and that I could ever teach—is that all the definitions of success elucidated above (and any related suppositions of success) are ultimately bogus and unwise metrics for actual and authentic SAL success. If this is the case, then what is the SAL definition of success? 

Good Question!

          And Freedom Focused has a good answer. 

At the proverbial "End of the Day" there is really only one authentic, legitimate, and fair definition of success for everyone under the sun, and it is this...

Your best is really the best you can ever do

SAL  DEFINITION  OF  SUCCESS: I am successful when I can look back at any given effort, performance, project, relationship, or time period in my life and honestly say to myself: "I did the imperfect BEST of which I was capable at the time."

Logically speaking, is it possible to do better than your best at any given moment in time? The answer, of course, is NO! As such, as long as you honestly and authentically put forth your very best effort at something, you can legitimately consider yourself as being consummately successful—at least in that particular moment in time.

Our challenge and opportunity in life is not to "do better than our best." Our challenge and opportunity in life is to actually do our best. If we are consistently successful in this single endeavor, we will find that results will take care of themselves in the long run.  

Imagine how much more successful people would view themselves if they exchanged their bogus, unwise, and unrealistic definitions of success for the much more pragmatic and achievable SAL definition of success. Moreover, imagine how much harder people would TRY if they truly adopted the SAL definition of success as their own definition of success. It is one of those powerful paradigm shifts that, when fully embraced by large numbers of people, could literally change the world.  

For better or for worse—and sometimes it is for the better; but often it is for the worse—human beings can be very competitive with each other. Such competitiveness makes comparisons with others an inevitability. Let's face it... we all like to "win" and virtually all of us spend too much time fixating on how we "stack up" against others. I know this is true in part because I myself am probably the most competitive person I've ever known, and I have certainly done my share of comparing myself with others.

Old Ben Franklin can help us reassess
what it means to be successful

Comparisons with other people have their place, but only if they serve to positively and productively bolster your own self-improvement and growth... and only if they are kept in their proper perspective. Outside of these strict parameters, comparing yourself with others serves little positive or productive purpose beyond hindering your own happiness, curtailing your own contentment, and gypping your own joy.

In the wise words of Benjamin Franklin: "Who is rich? He that rejoiceth in his portion." And in the pithy parlance of Theodore Roosevelt: "Comparison in the Thief of Joy."

"Who is rich? He that rejoiceth in his portion."

— Benjamin Franklin 

"Comparison is the Thief of Joy."

— Theodore Roosevelt

I first learned the importance of changing my own definition of success as a junior in high school. The fall semester of my junior year (1996), I claimed an individual State Championship and co-captained my team to a team State Championship in my school's classification. I had worked long and hard to accomplish this goal, and reaching this prep-pinnacle of my sport was enormously satisfying and rewarding.

But a funny thing happened after I won that gold medal and trophy. I started to get greedy. Consequently, avarice began influencing my definition of success. Thus, during track season the following spring it was no longer enough to merely "win" a State race. Instead, I had to win all four of my events in order to qualify as a true "success."

Standing in between the two runners who
beat me in the 3200 meters at State.

I worked just as hard to attain my increasingly ambitious goals; but unfortunately, I did not achieve them during track season. Instead of four GOLD medals at the State meet in 1997, I won two silvers, a bronze, and a 4th place medal.

Despite these legitimate accomplishments, I was predictably disappointed.  

The outcome of my distance medley relay race was especially deflating because one of my teammates dropped the baton after the first lap of the race, costing us several seconds of precious time and many meters of lost ground. Despite being favored to win the race, we were now playing catch-up in a big way. What should have been a glorious victory from start-to-finish turned into a disaster-in-the-making. 

Dismayed, but undaunted, I, the anchor (last) leg of our relay team, ran my heart out for the final 800 meters of the 1600 meter distance relay race (consisting of a 200m, 200m, 400m, and 800m segments). Absolutely determined to make up the ground we had lost, I grabbed the baton from our 400 meter runner and began to furiously pursue all of the runners in front of me. One-by-one, I reeled them in and passed them by. Six hundred yards into the race, I finally caught up with the lead runner and passed him also. Despite starting out thirty or forty yards behind first place, and also trailing three or four other runners, I had managed to catch everyone ahead of me in less than 90 seconds. Sadly, I had perhaps pushed myself too hard for those first 600 meters, and on the final straightaway, began to hear a runner gaining ground on me from behind. Surging once more with every last bit of energy, strength and will I had remaining, I lunged across the finish line in utter desperation. But it was not enough. The runner who had a 30-40 meter head start on me on his 800 meter leg had managed to catch me and just barely cross the finish line in first place, a mere few hundredths of a second before I did. 

Despite running the fastest 800 meter anchor leg of the entire field of competitors, second place still felt like a failure to me. I even recall throwing my team's baton in frustration—an immature and uncharacteristic response to the race result.

The race's outcome seemed so unfair.    

But here's the thing... I ran that 800 meters faster than I had ever run the 800 meters in my entire life to date. In fact, over the course of the rest of my high school running career, which included my entire senior season in 1998, I ran faster in the 800 meters only once, and that was by a mere half-second nearly a year later. 

I also broke personal records in both the 1600 and 3200 meter races at the 1997 State Meet. As such, I should have been very pleased by my performances, regardless of the color of the medals I received. The bottom line was that regardless where I had stacked up against others, I had personally been very successful as judged by the stopwatch, not to mention the extent of my own personal effort, which had been COMPLETE, and especially so in the distance medley relay.  

Later on as a college runner, and unlike my high school career, I won very few races. In fact, the only race I ever won in college was in the 'B' heat of an indoor mile race. For those unfamiliar with track and field, the 'B' heat is where they put the slower runners competing in a track meet. The fastest guys compete in the 'A' heat.

Despite my lack of "winning" in college, I made significant improvements in my personal times in most events in which I competed. In fact, some of my best times in college would have broken State Records in the classification in which I competed in high school. According to the stopwatch and my own effort quotient, I was, in fact, a very successful collegiate athlete—despite almost never "winning." In other words, despite losing almost every race I ever ran in college, I was a very successful runner according to the SAL Definition of Success.     

These experiences as a collegiate athlete helped me to change my own definition of success to mirror the SAL definition of success. And I have been better off, and unquestionably happier and more content, ever since as a result.

I openly confess I still have a weakness for comparing myself to others. Moreover, I remain very competitive in my desire to not only be my own best self, but, if and when possible, to come out on top of my fellow competitors as well. Nevertheless, I am pleased to report that I can also honestly say that despite any and all of the things I have not yet accomplished in my life or career, I view myself as being a very successful person and professional RIGHT NOW. 

Why?

          Simple...

Because I consistently do my imperfect BEST at whatever I undertake.

Now... someone who knows me very well (like my wife) will tell you that my imperfect best can, at times, be pretty lousy! And they are probably spot on in their assessment (SMILE). Such times provide me with a "reality check" in regards to how far I still have to go in my own personal and professional growth and development. Such moments of reflection help me continually improve. Thus, when I do make a mistake, fall short, or fall prey to inertia (laziness)—which, SAL guy notwithstanding, still happens on a regular basis—I make a sincere effort to change and improve moving forward.

And I never give up trying to get better. I always keep trying, however imperfectly. As a result, I remain, and will continue to remain, a success—regardless how relatively imperfectly my actual performance or results may be on a day-to-day basis. In short, I strive always to follow the counsel of Winston Churchill, who has said:

"Never give up on something that you can't go a day without thinking about. ... Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm. ... Never give in — never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

— Sir Winston Spencer Churchill  

Freedom Focused declares that while life often seems to be a competition or series of unending comparisons with our fellowmen and women, that is not what it is designed or meant to be. Rather, it was designed and meant to be an opportunity for us to learn from others as we strive to continually put forth our own best effort in whatever we undertake—in an unending attempt to grow, improve, and progress both personally and professionally. And as long as we are sincerely and honestly giving our best all along the way, we can, at any given moment in time in our lives enjoy the authentically satisfying, rewarding, and contented pleasure that come from being a SAL Success.  

In what ways do you counterproductively compare yourself to others? Has your own definition of success reached unrealistic heights in your personal life, educational journey, or professional career? What is one simple thing you could begin thinking, saying, or doing beginning TODAY to let go of pseudo-definitions of success and begin embracing the SAL Definition of Success?    

SAL DEFINITION OF SUCCESS: I am successful when I can look back at any given effort, performance, project, relationship, or time period in my life and honestly say to myself: "I did the imperfect BEST of which I was capable at the time."

.........................

Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.  

And if you liked this blog post, please share it with your family, friends, colleagues, and students—and encourage them to sign up to receive future articles for FREE every Wednesday.

To sign up, please email freedomfocused@gmail.com and say SUBSCRIBE, or just YES, and we will ensure you receive a link to each new blog article every Wednesday.  

Click HERE to learn more about Freedom Focused

Click HERE to learn more about Dr. Jordan Jensen

Click HERE to buy the SAL Textbooks