How do you define success?

This is a question I regularly ask myself as a ‘check in’ to my mindset. It’s a check in most often regarding how I’m doing while working towards learning a new skill or completing a goal. It’s not necessarily a question I ask myself as an overarching evaluation of my life. Although there is a time and place for that.

It’s more like I’ll question my motives, commitment and skills acquired while doing things I love like practicing yoga or riding horses. My answer might surprise some and seem a bit outside the norm of western culture.

Here’s a recent example as it relates to our 11 year old daughter.

Our daughter recently played basketball on a team for the very first time. It was even her first experience playing a team sport and she wasn’t familiar with how to play the game outside of PE class or driveway pick up games at home. We are so fortunate that she was part of an instructional league that focused mainly on developing skills on the court, yes, but also OFF the court. Her coaches and teammates were all very encouraging the entire season.

During games in the early season, I noticed that as soon as she had the ball in her hands she would often play ‘hot potato’. So as quickly that I would get excited that I might watch her take part in an offensive play, my excitement would wane. She lacked confidence in knowing what to do and how to do it. I was beginning to wonder if she was going to put herself out there and take a shot.

This was an eight game season and it took until game five that she actually got the ball in her hands she didn’t play ‘hot potato’. Stunned, I watched as she dribbled the ball down the entire court. I couldn’t have been more proud of her personal win.

Now to society, this may not have looked like much, but to me her personal growth was a huge win.

In that moment I realized that my definition of success may look different than others. Success became more about the personal growth journey and less about the statistics our society often uses for measurement.

In game six and seven we watched our daughter grow in confidence and dribble the ball down the court a few more times. She even gained enough confidence to actually shoot the ball. Like, at the basket. To no avail. She stuck with it, though. She kept showing up for herself and for her team. In game 8 of the season she took the shot. And made it.

The very last game.

A player that scored two points in an entire season, to me is one of the greatest successes I have ever witnessed. Her personal growth journey was huge!

How can we relate this to ourselves?

How do you measure success on your yoga mat? Do you measure success by nailing all the tough poses? Perhaps becoming frustrated with yourself because your practice may not look like those fancy poses that you see on social media? Or the person that you see practicing next to you at the studio?

What if you measured success by your consistency in your practices? Showing up for yourself day after day. When you feel like it. AND when you don’t.

To me, success is showing up for myself on the mat with consistency. With the theory of becoming one percent better every day. Somedays success looks like just showing up to my mat with what I have that day. And some days, quite frankly, it’s not much. Other days I show up for myself and nail the tough poses I’ve been working toward.

Either way, I count it a win.

Right now, where are you successful? I know that you are.