Success Factor - Business mentor and life coach based in Christchurch, New Zealand
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Is Your Success Based on Results OR Efforts?

There is a well-known saying “Success does not lie in ‘results’ but in ‘efforts, ‘being’ the best is not so important, ‘doing’ the best is all that matters.

What’s your view?

To measure success, we need to determine our current situation and our desired situation, and what value we put on the need to reach our destination.

Let’s use a metaphor to describe this. I want to climb a mountain. This is going to be the highest and toughest mountain I’ve ever climbed before. Now I’ve had some experience climbing mountains and am reasonably fit (although could be fitter) and am already doubting my ability in being able to reach the summit.

Let’s say, I have made every effort possible to train, by regular walking, tramping, running and building up my stamina to ensure I am able to climb this mountain.

However, on the day, despite every effort to conquer this mountain, I don’t reach the summit. Instead I falter not too far from the summit, but near enough to feel I did a great job, but not far enough to feel I was successful.

Do I feel I have failed or been successful?

Did I measure my success on the results i.e. I did NOT reach the summit, and so therefore did NOT succeed, or failed.

OR

My efforts i.e. I did everything I could to ensure I was prepared, whilst not reaching the mountain’s summit, I reached my personal summit, and so my efforts were a success, and knew I did as much as I was able to do.

I feel this saying illustrates that success is our personal view on how well we measured up at the time using our abilities, skill and determination. It makes us look on perceived ‘failure’ as more of a will do differently next time, and an ability to look at what we did well, not so well, and what we learned about ourselves in the process.

You might want to think about this in relation to your own situation, and whether you measure your success on your efforts or your results, and that doing your best is much more important that being the best, competing against ourselves and not of others.

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