Success: Beneath the surface of celebrations

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”

– Winston Churchill

The end of the calendar year is full of holiday celebrations. We often gather with colleagues, friends, and family who we don’t spend as much time with as we’d like to the rest of the year. Conversations cover everything from the weather to the year’s highlights and accomplishments. If we feel like we’ve had a good year, we usually look forward to sharing and enjoy this time with others. If we’ve had one of those learning years where it seems like we’ve had to struggle more than celebrate, we tend to gloss over the tough stuff.

We are a culture that focuses on winners, success, beauty, confidence, luxury, and perfection. While it is great to celebrate successes when they happen, it is equally essential to remember that all of those achievements, acquired assets, and fortunate situations are balanced with an enormous amount of work, learning, growing, investment and dedication. This is a message we can all benefit from at any age and at any time.

We really love Winston Churchill’s quote about success and failure because it is a wonderful reminder that failure is an important part of the learning cycle that leads to success. They depend on each other. By valuing them both and remaining positive and energetic in pursuit of our goals, we will ultimately attain success. However, if we allow ourselves to get stuck after a failure in the learning cycle, we may never move on to reach our full potential.

In a world filled with messaging that we can and should be completely self-reliant, perfect and instantly gratified with technology, we often forget that we do not live in independent bubbles. We need each other to survive and it is not only acceptable to lean on each other for help but essential for our well-being to remember we are part of a community.

There is nothing wrong with not getting something right the first time as long as we quickly learn and take action to improve. The keys are to quickly recognize the failure, be honest about it, and be accountable for moving beyond it. By examining what needs to be changed and then acting to make those changes with earnest intention to improve we not only grow our own skills, but we advance human knowledge and wisdom.

What is the difference between what we observe about success and what actually makes that success possible?

Initiative.

One word sums up the answer, but let’s review what that word really means. Based on the science of human nature, most people do only as much as they are asked. They do what is required and no more. They tend to be minimum thinkers instead of maximum thinkers. This isn’t meant to be a negative or judgmental statement. It’s just a fact of human nature to conserve energy. Those who fall into this larger category expect specific instructions and feedback on every step of a process. Success to them is defined as having completed all assigned tasks to the required quality criteria trained.

Conversely, those who become more successful go beyond basic human nature. They are engaged, enthusiastic, anxious, passionate, and care deeply about what they are doing. They don’t need or desire to be micro-managed in all things. They just get the work done. They think it through, ask questions, move ahead to complete the full task, and do it right the first time (or at least try). They also influence the direction for how certain ideas and projects are carried out. Other people tend to listen to them and seek their opinion because they feel they are connecting with a source of energy that is positive and action-oriented that can be trusted to be honest. Successful people who are maximum thinkers reach out, research, ask questions, make recommendations, offer to help, pitch ideas, fail, try again, keep asking, keep helping, stay positive. They take reasonable risks. They lead when necessary and create environments that allow others to lead and learn as well.

A great list of all the traits beneath the surface of celebrations of success that are not as easy to see or as easy to talk about as the result comes to us from The Performance Room:

• Teamwork
• Doubts
• Anxiety
• Focus
• Consistency
• Sacrifice
• Mental toughness
• Persistence
• Risk
• Learning
• Disappointment
• Discipline
• Passion
• Hard work
• Perseverance
• Motivation
• Resilience
• Habits
• Rejection
• Coping

The bottom line is that being successful at work and life is complicated and doesn’t happen without the help of a team. As we learn to be more realistic about what it takes to live well-rounded lives that allow us to be more productive and successful in all areas, finding ways to best utilize our resources for efficiently and effectively getting everything done on our to-do list is essential. That is what Balance Concierge is all about. Our team alleviates some of the daily distractions that serve as roadblocks to success.

We partner with human resources, department managers and team leaders in large organizations within the healthcare industry to help create custom high-touch, high-tech online solutions that set up teams for success. Contact us to learn more at 877.502.2201 or Click Here.