"What does success look like to you?"
It's a question I often ask on the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, and it's one that a great mentor and friend, Karen Endres, reminded me of recently as we talked about kids, sports and coaching.
As parents, we sometimes have an idea of what our kids' success looks like. In fact, our version of success is what we snap the photo of and post on social media.
The victory.
The blue ribbon.
The smile and the trophy.
But that may not be their version of success.
Karen's words echoed in my mind yesterday as my boys and I made a visit to my family farm in southern Wisconsin.
It is just the beginning of "tadpole hunting season," and my 6-year-old couldn't wait to hike back to the little pond and get to work.
I watched him wade through ankle-deep water in his little rubber boots for an hour, a net in one hand and Grandpa's empty coffee jar in the other. Laser-focused on the tiny little black creatures.
He was on a mission to fill that jar.
And he did ... with about 150 tadpoles and a couple of leaches to boot.
I watched him in this moment of pure little boy bliss, until it was time to head back.
On our walk back to the house, I posed the "success" question to him in "kindergartener" terms, by asking, "What part about this is the best part to you? Is it this part - where you get to look at your full jar of tadpoles?"
"No," he replied quickly. "It's the hunt."
And in that moment, I realized I had taken the wrong pictures.
My camera roll was filled with what I thought were pictures of his success: The brimming jar of slimy tadpoles.
But his success: An afternoon in the pond, "hunting."
How often do we get this wrong? For our kids, our team, even ourselves?
We snap the picture of the victory, but neglect to document the journey that got us there. Maybe because it's muddy, murky and messy.
But sometimes, that is the true picture of success.
So take just a moment to think about it:
What does success really look like to you?
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Peggy Coffeen
Uplevel Dairy Podcast
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