“Success is… knowing your purpose in life, growing to reach your
maximum potential, and sowing seeds that benefits others.” – John C. Maxwell
To breathe
is to sustain life and to exhale is to breathe out air in a deliberate manner.
Well I believe that every significant journey beings with the first step. There
are many missteps and pitfalls along the way but its important to always
persevere. Through continual growth and endurance one is able to reach their
end goal, and simply, EXHALE. Jon Bon Jovi stated that ‘Success is falling nine
times and getting up ten.” There is great truth found in this definition of
success.
As my
formal education voyage comes to an end there are many questions that arise.
The most significant question I am currently facing is, what is success? How do
I define and measure success? Through this post I would like to define my own
personal meaning of success. The pursuit of excellence is what I am striving
towards, but how will I know when I get there?
Originally,
I believed that success solely had to do with winning. We are taught by many
sources that anyone can do anything. But realistically our chances of becoming
the next Bill Gates are fairly slim. The media is loves selling a
rags-to-riches story, but the definition of ‘riches’ and ‘success’ are very
skewed in mainstream media.
JohnWooden, more affectionately known as Coach, served as head coach for the UCLA
men’s basketball team for forty years. During a TED talk in 2001 Wooden
recalled a piece of advice he received from his father before defining his own
meaning for success. He stated that one
should “never try to be better than someone else, and to always learn from
others.” He then continued on with his own definition; “Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the
effort to do the best of which you are capable.” Peace of Mind knowing that you
gave your best effort. Pretty Powerful.
Another
great American sporting coach was Vince Lombardi. Lombardi defined success as
“hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether
we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”
Giving your all in all you do is vital to achieve personal fulfillment.
I believe
that each of us should take the time to conceive our own personal definition of
success. What are the key areas of your personal fulfillment? Take the time to
address your core values to and develop your own definition of success.
If I had to
define success it would be ‘Persistent hard work and dedication to achieve the
task at hand, while concentrating on attaining your purpose in life.
Persevering through the storm to reach a higher height. Giving ones best in all
they do, to achieve a personal sense of fulfillment and joy, is success.’
With my own
personal definition of success, I am happy to say that I have achieved personal
success with the communication of this Entertainment Business Masters of
Science program. Now I can exhale, a
deliberate release of fresh air!
“….I firmly
believe that any man’s finest hours – his greatest fulfillment of all that he
holds dear – is that moment when he has worked his heart out in good cause and
lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.”
- Vince
Lombardi
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