I have some great news for you. You can control what your greatest achievements in your life are. I was reminded of this last week whilst watching Shane Crawford complete his 780km run/walk from Adelaide to Melbourne over 12 days.
Picture: www.thecourier.com.au
As a footballer Shane strived to win the best and fairest player in the league, in 1999 succeeded. He also chased team success in a premiership, and in his last game in 2008 he succeeded. In football these are great achievements but there is a flaw in measuring success based on these great achievements which I’ll explain. No doubt Shane Crawford knows this flaw too which is why at the end of the day he will control his greatest achievements.
Recently Shane Crawford set out to complete a journey from Adelaide to Melbourne to raise money and awareness for Breast Cancer. He completed this journey averaging about 63km or one a half marathons each day. On the way he raised over $400k to date met many ordinary people and ones with a story of how breast cancer has touched them. He said that the run was life changing, how could it not be? Forget the football, I think that it is his greatest achievement and I am not the only one.
Winning a Brownlow Medal requires a degree of luck. You can be the best player but if the umpires don’t notice you or you miss games through injury you can miss out. Some of history’s greatest players never won this prestigious award. Would winning one have made a difference to a players performance and attitude, probably not. Winning a premiership is also very difficult. You have to not only perform yourself but have a season where about 50 players and coach’s gel together to produce the ultimate team success. This can be decided by a single point over a long career, again does the fact your team lost a game by a point suddenly mean you are a failure?
Where these goals are flawed is that there is too much that is out of your control. There is reliance and competition with others that mean that no matter how hard you try, ‘success’ may never come into fruition. They are also goals that many people aspire to achieve because that is what they have been told is the ultimate achievement in sport. It is like having a job and getting promoted until you are the boss but finding that is not what you really wanted.
It is easy to be swept up in what the definition of success actually is. The reality is that it will be different for everyone, and not necessarily measured in money or awards but in what lasting impressions you make.
For mine when Shane Crawford decided to run for cancer to raise money and awareness he crossed a line. He said to the world that he was going to make a difference and he has. His premiership didn’t save lives and give hope (although some Hawthorn supporters might dispute this!) but his run for breast cancer will.
His greatest achievements were of his own choosing where he could leave a lasting impact and make a difference. His Footy Show colleagues noted how they were proud of him for doing what he did. That is a big difference than when they were happy for him when he won a premiership.
This is a reminder that your greatest achievements are up entirely up to you. Anything is possible, you don’t have to be famous or rich, you just have to want to leave an impression and make a genuine difference so your life and others can be more fulfilling.
Chris Bellesini
Remember, You Too, Can
Choose Your Own Success
