There’s been quite a flap over the Canadian women’s soccer team and their loss to the US in the Olympic semi-final. “They were robbed!” “The ref had it in for them.” “The game was rigged.”

And even now that the women have won their bronze medal, it’s “that bronze should have been gold.”

I understand all the rants, but first things first: CONGRATULATIONS to the team on their win!! You put in great effort, you’ve triumphed in a sport that we’re not normally known for, you are gold in the hearts of Canadians!

You also make me think about what it means to succeed or fail in life.

Is success defined only by winning? Isn’t it a success just to be in the game, and give it your best? (Just don’t try saying that to a fan in mid-rant!)

Not long ago, I heard motivational speaker Tony Robbins define success in two ways:

(1) really going for something, whether it’s a sport or in business or some other area of life, and

(2) learning from it.

So if I work hard at learning to drive and fail my driver test (true story), I’m still a success if I learn from that (and thankfully I did pass the second time). And I suppose that Tony Robbins would also say that if I work hard to pass my college math but fail the final, I’m still a success if I learn I’m not a mathematician and switch to English.

Is that a good definition of success? Or is that just fooling myself? What does success look like to you?

Writing/Reflection Prompt: What does success look like to you?

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