We said earlier that the pursuit of money is not the best driver of success. The pursuit of money for the sake of money won’t get you to success. The drive for money eventually weakens under the harsh challenges to be successful and most people will stop before they are successful when money is the main driver of that success. Money is not the best driver of success.
Neither is the pursuit of greatness. Just because you want to be great, be the CEO, win the gold medal, and such is insufficient to sustain you to tenaciously persevere to be successful. The drive to be “the best” can be helpful but without a more compelling driver, most people will fail to reach their goal. Many have wanted to be the best, to be great, to win the recognition of other successful people. But if that is the main reason for, the main driver of their actions, then eventually they will find it is insufficient to sustain them when faced with the toughest challenges.
But Don’t Olympians Pursue Greatness?
Perhaps that is a component of what drivers them but there is still something more powerful that when it is the underlying driver of the pursuit of success, then there is the best chance of persevering. Remember, it takes tenacious perseverance to achieve success. Success is never handed to someone. It is not easy to achieve. Too many circumstances arise and difficulties emerge that cause people to consider stopping their pursuit of success. Success must be pursued and only with perseverance is it possible to experience.
What will support people the most in hanging in there when the going gets tough? What driver or reason to pursue success will best serve to sustain the effort? What keeps the Olympian focused and relentless in their pursuit of excellence and their dream to compete for the gold medal?
Before we answer that question, let’s explore what kind of effort it typically takes to be successful.
Effort And Success
First, let’s define being “successful” as achieving a worthy goal, a goal that means something, that may contribute to others, that may make a difference in the lives of others, that may add to society and the human race. Such goals may manifest in the demonstration of outstanding performance (in athletics, the arts, engineering, science, technology, civil service, government, manufacturing, literature, and any of the other areas of life).
These may seem lofty but achieving goals in that direction, along the continuum, can be described as success. If you decide to write a book or a screen play, to coach a youth sport team, to start a business, to fulfill a bucket list, or other myriad goals, the achievement can be seen as a success. To be “successful” is left to some interpretation, of course, but is typically seen as an on-going process of becoming. It is not a static event or state. To be successful is a state of mind as well as achievement. And, all worthy achievement is driven by a correspondingly worthy reason, cause, purpose.
Let’s explore the main driver of success in our third article. Remember, we’re also planning to provide the factors necessary for success and strategies on how to prepare to be successful.
