The Road to Success

The road to success is made up of a million little boring, mundane, unpleasant tasks.

It is littered with disappointments, difficulty, blood (literal and figurative), sweat, tears.

The success snapshot seen by the public is the culmination of all this private, behind-the-scenes work –

the perfectly styled Instagram account with 1,000,000 likes and sponsorship deals

the victory in the ring, the gold medal, the platinum album

the well-adjusted child

the happy marriage

the promotion at work

the healthy report at the doctor

they are built on the persistence, discipline, sacrifice, hard work of many minutes, many days, many months, many years, many decades.

They are the result of not giving up, of choosing hard over easy. Of choosing long-term gain over short-term feel-good. Of hoping and believing even when it’s not easy to see the reward ahead.

So lately I work hard to not allow the success of others to discourage my path – meaning, I don’t let the glitzy highlight reel of someone else’s life derail me from the unglamorous things I’m in the midst of that lead to my version of success. I can’t live my life comparing it to the journey of another.

Instead, I offer sincere congratulations internally and externally and remember to define my version of success and work backwards to understand what it will take for me to get there…

…and then steel my fickle heart to not give up – to be firmly planted in truth and walk forward each day doing the things that may not offer up accolades or admiration from the general public, but bring me closer to the joy of God’s unique plan for my unique life.

Friend, if you have been struggling with feelings of insignificance or failure – may I encourage you to take a minute to take inventory of why? Are you allowing the highlight reel of others to derail you? Are you taking on the weight of competing with another person’s journey?

Have you lost sight of what is important to you, and what the daily grind looks like to get there? Or perhaps you’ve never stopped in the hustling to take a look at what is truly important to you and what it will take for you to stick to your guns to achieve that success?

May you experience the blessing of reconnecting with your identity and purpose to define what success means for your life: and may it bless the lives of those around you in profound ways.