There is no continuum for success. Focus on the progress, not the results.
Interpretation
Success is less about the end goal and more about the journey and progress made along the way.
This quote emphasizes the importance of focusing on progress rather than fixating solely on the end results of success. Nick Saban suggests that acknowledging and valuing the steps taken towards achieving a goal can lead to greater fulfillment and ultimately contribute to achieving success itself. This perspective shifts the mindset from a results-oriented approach to one that appreciates the learning and growth that occurs throughout the process.
In practice
A motivational speaker could use this quote during a seminar on achieving career goals.
I don't want people to think I'm not happy when we win - I am. But there's a difference between being happy for the feeling of accomplishing something and being overjoyed and feeling, 'This is it - we conquered the world.' We didn't. We just won a game.
I don't believe you name a starter until the starter wins the team.
People talk about you won four national championships. Well, I feel like we've had good enough teams to win eight. So I feel like we failed four times. I feel like I failed four times.
What happened yesterday is history. What happens tomorrow is a mystery. What we do today makes a difference - the precious present moment.
When I talk about a successful program, define that. It's not just winning the national championship every year because nobody can do that.
I think the worst thing a player can do is just not be yourself.
I want to be able to look back and say, 'I've done everything I can, and I was successful.' I don't want to look back and say I should have done this or that. I'd like to change things for the younger generation of swimmers coming along.
You always want your people to be proud of what you have accomplished.
Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.
How you start is important, very important, but in the end it is how you finish that counts. It is easier to be a self-starter than a self-finisher. The victor in the race is not the one who dashes off swiftest but the one who leads at the finish. In the race for success, speed is less important than stamina. The sticker outlasts the sprinter in life's race. In America we breed many hares but not so many tortoises.
Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.
Certainly, I've never wanted to live on past achievements.
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