What do we think of when we hear that someone is “successful”?
This question is particularly important as we approach exams, recital performances, and end of year activities.
The dictionary definition of success has 2 parts:
- The achievement of a series of goals or aims, or
- The attainment of wealth, fame, status, or of being top in one’s field.
Unfortunately, too often in life, we focus on this second part of the definition.
Wealth, fame, status, top of one’s field.
If I were to choose to look at myself as a business owner from that perspective, as do many of my peers, I would not be considered successful:
I am not particularly wealthy:
- I drive a 12-year-old car
- I live in a small house in need of some TLC, and
- I shop mostly at Costco and Walmart
But … should we really measure our success in terms of wealth and material things?
And then what about fame and status?
The toddlers all scream like I’m a famous rock star when I go into their classrooms, but other than that, a music teacher doesn’t get a lot of recognition, and unfortunately, being a teacher doesn’t seem to have the same status as it used to.
And then there is that idea of “top of your field”. To the best of my knowledge, there are no awards or accolades for private music teachers. So how then, does a music teacher measure success?
As musicians, there are many opportunities to compare our performance against others, and even to achieve fame and fortune, but I have personally never felt that music should be a competitive sport. I feel that making music should be something that brings joy to our lives, whether or not we choose to compete, or to turn music into a career.
Fame, status, top of our field … these all mean that we have been judged against someone else’s achievements, but do we truly need to measure our own success in comparison with others?
A couple of weeks ago, I actually had an interesting conversation with someone who had had the opportunity to spend time with some of our Special Olympians. He related to me how they described turning what most people would consider a disadvantage into an actual advantage in their sport.
That conversation made me wonder about athletes and the concept of being successful. Do we consider the person who came last in their event at the Olympics to be a successful athlete? What about the fact that they were actually good enough to make it to the Olympics? What if, while they were competing, even though they placed last, they managed to achieve their own personal best in their event? Do we consider them successful?
There are many people in this world who struggle with, not only physical challenges, but also with emotional and mental challenges. For some people, a successful day is one in which they are simply able to get out of bed and face the world.
I, personally, would rather focus on that first part of the definition of success … the achievement of a series of goals. I think it is the little achievements that happen every day that make us successful. I believe that a day when we feel happy and fulfilled is a successful day.
So then, what about exams and recitals? Are we successful only if we have a perfect performance? What about the fact that we have learned a great deal over the year, and are much better musicians than we were at this time last year? What about the fact that we have the courage and confidence to share what we have learned either with an examiner or with a room full of strangers, even though we will probably make mistakes?
The measure of our success as students or as teachers should not be in what happens over a few minutes, but in what we achieve over the course of the year.
The first step towards achieving success, then, is to figure out what our own personal goals are. As a teacher, I measure my success through the success of my students. Every time they come to class with a smile on their face, they finish learning how to play a song, they figure out how to do something without my help, they conquer another hurdle, they feel prepared for an exam or performance, and every time their family is proud of them … I am successful.
Once we have defined our goals, success becomes a journey, not a destination.