Success vs. Winning

“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming” (Wooden, 2009).

Success vs. Winning - John Wooden

Defining Success In his talk, The Difference Between Winning and Succeeding, John Wooden (2009) defines success as a person’s ability to live to their full potential. In his career, John Wooden was both a teacher and coach. In both professions, he never defined success as earning an A or winning a basketball game. Instead, he encouraged his players and students to be the best they could be (Wooden, 2009). Similarly, in the article Defining Success, musician and teacher Chrissy Ricker (2016) talks about her experience with performance anxiety and reframing her definition of being a successful musician. In her story, Ricker (2016) realized that performing was not the only determining factor of success. In my professional life, success is seeing my students and athletes reach their goals and find a love for exercise and movement. In my personal life, I define success as happiness and living in harmony with my partner.

Core Principles of Success Perseverance, self-control, and a sense of purpose are three core principals needed to achieve success. Working hard through a challenge is what Wooden (2009) identified as industriousness, and it is one of the cornerstones of his Pyramid of Success. The concept of perseverance is also one we see from Ricker (2016) in her article. She stated that successful musicians know how to work independently and can solve problems in their practicing (Ricker, 2016). Self-control is another core principle of achieving success (Gordeeva, Osin, Suchkov, Ivanova, Sychev, & Bobrov, 2017). In a study done by Gordeeva, et al., (2017) there was evidence of a relationship between self-control and markers of successful functioning. For example, it was found that people with higher levels of self-control were more goal oriented, organized, and persistent when achieving their goals (Gordeeva et al., 2017). I think self-control was a characteristic John Wooden (2009) also taught in his athletes. John Wooden (2009) learned many of his core principals of success from his dad such as; 1) never be late, 2) always be neat and clean, 3) never use profanity, and 4) never criticize another teammate. I believe these four principals reinforce the relationship between self-control and success. A sense of purpose is another essential component of achieving success. Helping individuals love what they do can create a sense of purpose and self-satisfaction (Wooden, 2009). Setting goals and creating a plan of action for achieving those goals is a component of success defined by Ricker (2016). I believe setting personal goals is another way to create a sense of purpose and help individuals achieve success.

Strategies for Building Success in Others Giving individuals tools to persevere, setting boundaries for self-control, and aiding in finding a sense of purpose are strategies for building success in others. Helping those around you see failure as an opportunity for growth is one tool you can use to help develop perseverance. For example, if one of your athletes does not get the time she wanted in her event, you can use the performance to create more focus during practice. In your personal life, if you get into an argument with your partner, see the discussion as an opportunity to build communication skills. Setting boundaries for self-control is something one can take directly from John Wooden (2009). Use his principals of not being late, being neat and clean, not using profanity and not criticizing others as boundaries for creating self-control with my swim team. Lastly, help athletes set goals for themselves to build a sense of purpose. One way you can do this is to have each athlete tell you what they want to focus on each practice.

Application of Core Principals In his talk, Wooden (2009) recited a verse from a poem to make the point that students will learn more from what their teachers do than from the lessons taught by that teacher. For this reason, our application of perseverance, self-control, and a sense of purpose is more important than teaching these principles to athletes and students. We must be the example.