Success

What is Success?

It should be your aim to be successful. Success means different things to different people. In reality, success is a measure of achievement compared with goals set, so it all depends on what targets you set yourself as to whether you feel successful.

Success is a subjective thing. What one person might see as achievement, another might view as abject failure. So it is important to set your own personal goals, not copy somebody else.

Success to a novice golfer might be winning a club competition, whereas a low handicapper might have his eyes set on winning the County Championship.

It’s essential to keep a level head. Whilst success brings pleasure, the high flier is rarely satisfied. No sooner is one goal achieved than another one set.

It is important not to loose sight of reality. No matter how ambitious you are, or how far you feel you need to go to accomplish your ultimate goal, you must enjoy the milestones as they are reached. Failure to do so might make you a sad and lonely individual and will inevitably leave you stressed.

Dealing with success

It is important to handle success in a proper manner. Do not allow your ego to run away with you. When successful you have every right to celebrate, but don’t loose sight of the fact you are only as good as your next game, and there’s always another challenge waiting to beat you out there.

It never pays to get boastful. Good news travels fast (bad news travels faster), so you really don’t need to announce your achievements to anyone that's prepared to listen. If your success is worthy, the word will get around soon enough. Remember, nobody likes a bighead! Be happy in yourself that you have achieved what you set out to do. The fact you have won something may make you stronger by giving you more confidence in the future, but it shouldn't affect your attitude or the way you treat others.

The most valuable thing about success is the lesson you can learn. After the celebrations you should take time to run through how you achieved your success. What made it happen for you? By analysing how you got to be successful you can discover how to recreate that environment again in the future. This is why people often say - The hardest and most memorable achievement is your first competitive win. Once you have discovered that you can, and worked out how you did it, there's no reason why you shouldn't do it again. No matter who you are, there is always something to be learned. Don't waste this precious opportunity.

Dealing with praise

Many people get embarrassed when they are congratulated. Don’t be! Whether you have played a great shot or won a major event, being able to accept a compliment is an important process in building your self-confidence.

Do not attempt to belittle your achievement, as you run the risk of loosing your own perception of the value and therefore the positive effect it will have on you. When somebody says “Well done” you should look them in the eye and confidently say “Thank you.”

Constantly playing down praise can get quite annoying to people who have gone out of their way to offer it. Attempts at obvious modesty can therefore backfire. You are a competitor, not a saint. By nature you are a go-getter so don't try to appear otherwise, just keep it real.

Whilst modesty is considered a nice quality, it often boarders on submissiveness and has difficulty fitting into the cut and thrust of the competitive world. A modest person will generally take the back seat, is happy to stand in the shadows or might get embarrassed when given attention. If you wish to reach the top you should regard modesty almost as undesirable as arrogance – neither will help your cause.