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.
Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.
I never competed against athletes. I competed against perfection.
You have to be able to bounce back and deal with disappointment, failure and weaknesses, and a lot of that happens behind the scenes for teams that are very successful.
It's all about competitiveness: are you making the products that people really do want and value, and are you making it more efficiently and using less resources and less time than the competition?
At 14, you think you compete, you retire and you get a job. I didn't think gymnastics was a career that was going to change my life.
I never was after money. It never attracted me.
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