Success and Effort. Two very subjective words.

As I pondered the topic of this blog post I came across a picture on Instagram quoting the early 1900's self help author Robert Collier.  "Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out."  Initially I thought to myself, "absolutely true." But the reality is that this couldn't be any further from the truth.  Why do I think this you might be asking?  My reason is simple and involves the two key words of the quote; success and effort.

Success is a term that can be defined in many ways.  What I define as success may differ from another person's definition of success.  Furthermore, is success monetary?  Is it a degree earned?  Is it a position attained?  Is it an award earned?  Is it respect of your peers?  Is success self-actualization, reaching your highest potential?  Or is success a combination of all of these things?  The answer to this question is different for everyone.  It can actually be none of them.  Everyone is different and we have to define our version of success.  Once we have that definition then and only then can we take steps toward it.

Effort.  The word itself always reminds me of an elementary teacher I had that used to always say, "you get an A for effort."  But the end result is I did poorly on the assignment and because I tried hard this statement accompanied my grade of C.  As it relates to Collier's quote my main issue isn't with the word effort, it's with the pairing of the word effort and "small."  I understand what he means by the quote.  Day in and day out, being consistent and putting forth effort.  But let's be honest, some of the efforts we have to put forth are not small.  Some take a large commitment of time, energy and resources.  Not everything we do on our way to our definition of success is mundane.  Think about the projects, exams, presentations, portfolios, interviews and significant efforts we have to put forth.  Granted "mastering the mundane tasks" will be a stepping stone to success, but the gigantic efforts we put forth are definitely the most significant relative to achieving our version of success.

To build on Collier's words, let's add a sentence.  "Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.  Understand your definition of success and recognize that the large efforts you put forth will be integral to achieving it."