All great men and women pass through personal battlefields that lead to great outward accomplishments. These battles put them at odds with character weaknesses. These weaknesses handicap them in achieving the greater purposes their heart and abilities are pulling them towards. So they face them…because all great public victories are backed by hundreds of private victories.
These private victories are the essence of character growth. They are the essence of who we are. It has been said “I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday”. One cannot fake private victory when placed in the public arena. One’s true character eventually reveals itself when tested in collaborative one-on-one and group settings. Private growth leads to synergies, collaboration, and the elevation of those around us. It is the ability to make others great (and in doing so we become great!).
Many of these private battles are illustrated in our personal goals and desires. The process of self evaluation and attempted action is getting onto the battlefield of growth. Without self reflective honesty there is little opportunity for self improvement. The trial and error growth process is flooded with failures but also marked with key milestone victories along the way. These victories mold us into tested individuals ready for external contribution.
In other words, to be successful with our family, friends, career, and community we must first be successful with ourselves. The simple, yet challenging, path to public victory is to:
- Accept Responsibility: We accept that we are responsible for our own lives and our success is the result of our decisions; not our environment.
- Know where you are going: We see ourselves for who we are and clearly define, in our mind’s eye, who we want to become
- Prioritize: We restructure our life to prioritize the actions of progress over the actions of pleasure; realizing that ultimately our progress will result in a great pleasure than those we neglect.
As we move towards the latter half of January our new year’s juice may be running low and discouragement running high. Life is a marathon not a sprint. Each step forward takes us closer to our goal. It is a fact that private victories are accompanied by private failures. Ultimately, only the victories count for they are the symbol of growth and dictate who will become.
“Private victories precede public victories. You can’t invert that process any more than you can harvest a crop before you plant it”.
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