By now you know that I consider success to be a very personal thing. I am all about “Personal Definitions of Success,” and I urge my readers and audiences to focus on their personal circumstances when they are evaluating their own successes.
Recently I wrote about success and failure and what some past Olympic athletes had to say about it. We can learn a lot about success and failure by watching athletic competitions, and we have had so many excellent examples lately. February has been a good month for that, and here is what I learned.
Take Peyton Manning. What a disappointing Super Bowl for him. From the first play of the game, he seemed off his stride. Things never did go very well for him, and he ended up with a big loss on his record. Does that mean that he is a failure? Of course not. It means that he had a bad game …. no more and no less. He will still end up in the Football Hall of Fame and be remembered as one of the greatest QBs ever to play the game. One failure does not ruin a remarkably successful career.
Then take Ashley Wagner, the US figure skater, who had a bad showing at the US Championships earlier this year and barely made the US Olympic team. In fact, she finished fourth in that competition, falling twice and creating a great controversy about her later selection to compete in the Olympics. But, the important thing is that she was chosen for the Olympic team and skated exceptionally well at her first competition in Sochi — well enough to get the US figure skaters into the next level of competition. When asked about her poor performance at the US Championships, she said, “One bad competition does not define me.”
And finally, my personal favorite, the Canadian ski champion Alexandre Bilodeau, who just became the first moguls skier to win two gold medals in downhill events. Even though this is very impressive, it is Bilodeau’s brother Frederic who gets my attention. Frederic was diagnosed with cerebral plasy at a young age and told that he would not be able to walk beyond the age of 12. However, more than 15 years later, he is walking, albeit it with considerable difficulty and challenge, and Alex says that Frederic’s spirit and courage is Alex’s inspiration for all that he does. In Alex’s words,
“Every day I feel very lucky to be a normal person that has the chance to go after his dreams, and [Frederic] doesn’t have that chance. So out of respect to him, I need to go after that … [W]ith his motivation he would be four-time Olympic champion.”
And that about says it all. You will fail and you will succeed. You will learn from your failures, and they will not define you. Evaluate your success within the context of your own circumstances and not someone else’s. Always look forward and make it your goal to get to the next level. Leave the past in the past where it belongs.
And most of all, remember Frederic Bilodeau when you need the courage to take the next step. Be like his brother, Alex, and appreciate your gifts and go for the gold.
That is what you can learn from the athletes.
