John Wooden on True Success

The other day I came across this talk by John Wooden on what he sees as true success... it is a great video of the inspiring and wise old coach, and I would heartily recommend it to anyone.



In the video, Wooden gives his definition of success. He says that success is:

"Peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you're capable."

Notice that his definition of success has nothing to do with achieving more fame or money than another person, a point which he makes in the talk. Instead, it is concerned with doing the best that you are capable of, and being satisfied with yourself and the life that you are living.

People see success as being in competition with other people, but Wooden says, "Never try to be better than anyone else." Rather, be the best you that you can be. At the end of the day, you need to be able to look yourself in the mirror and be satisfied, and that will not happen over the long-term if you are reaching for more fame, money, or popularity than other people. Those goals are fleeting, and are concerned with pride, not the true sense of satisfaction and fulfillment that comes from real growth as a person.

What is your definition of success? You need to evaluate that first, because that is what you will judge yourself on. If you have a warped sense of what being successful means, chances are you will be focused on the wrong things, and this will severely stunt your growth as a person.

Wooden had it right with his definition of success. True success is becoming the best person that you are capable of becoming. It has nothing to do with so many of the earthly things that we usually judge success on. If we truly are able to embrace this definition of success and live our life based on it, how much happier we would be.