The Need to Suceed

“Who wants to win this game?” That might be the start of a pep talk a coach gives to his team, which is usually followed by something like “How bad do you want it?” I believe everyone has a desire to succeed, whether they admit it or not. What that success is reveals how diverse society is. For clarity in this exposition, let’s say that success can be defined as the attainment of a goal or an accomplishment leading up to some goal. Most coaches and motivational speakers would say that success includes all the failures that lead up to that attainment. I agree with that paradigm. In fact, some successful people would say that a failure was an important part of success. For example, Thomas Edison was not discouraged by all the failed attempts to invent an electric lightbulb. He persevered by acknowledging that each one of those failures successfully determined another method that doesn’t work. It appears that patience and perseverance are important factors in the quest for success. Moreover, we should note that success is not the elimination of failure. Success can be facilitated by carefully collecting and reviewing every failure along the way. For myself, every time I made a mistake on a test, I would study what I got wrong; those were usually the answers I never forgot.

So, the way I see it, success consists of perseverance, faith in your trainer, faith in yourself, and a collection of multiple failures. There is one more thing that I believe leads to success, and that is a realization of the things that matter most, what really makes us feel good, what keeps us happy. Many times in life it is important to examine our goals and determine if we are directing our lives where we really want to go. Some people focus on fame or fortune, or both, only to realize the place they are going is not keeping them happy. Others may have met success and now want to change course and help others achieve the success they once sought. Whatever the case, we should not regret taking the time to examine what our goals are. It is this kind of certainty that full scale determination and perseverance requires.