Define the Win

A couple of years ago, my leadership coach asked me to write a definition of success.  Being a pastor, I set about this task by including attendance goals, growth goals, programming goals and the like.  I was so proud of my definition of success!  He however, took one look at it, handed it back to me and said, “This is no good.”

No good?  Why?  He went on to explain to me that there should not be anything included in my definition of success that I can’t control.  I can’t control how many people come to church.  I can’t control how fast the church grows.  I can’t control how fast our programming develops.  He went on to share with me that our definition of success should be based on what we can control, lest variables beyond our control make us feel like a failure.

So, on my second effort I included things such as daily study, daily prayer, walking in integrity, giving my best to the task at hand, and valuing my family.  He was much more pleased with this definition of success.  Over the next few months we honed it down to a workable, definable set of tasks and goals.

My encouragement to you is simply this:  Do not define your success by the things you have zero control over.  Define your success by those things you do control.  If our goal is to do the right things in the right ways, then likely the rest will come.  However, even if it doesn’t, often for reasons beyond our control, we are still a success.