when success becomes expected

If you want to read a good biography and you enjoy sports history, read When Pride Still Mattered, Lombardi, the Classic that Inspired the Broadway Play by David Maraniss.

My wife gave it to me for Valentines Day, even though she hates football. She's such a sweetheart.

Vince Lombardi is immortalized for the incredible success his teams had in Green Bay in the 60s. But like many successful figures, it was a long way to the top.

After years of coaching high school and college football teams, Lombardi came on as an assistant coach for the New York Football Giants, though it was the head coaching job he coveted. Maraniss describes the beginning of the 1956 season as a moment of confidence in the organization, one of those special tiems when success becomes expected (p. 175).

Growing up in a small town in the midwest, there were sports opportunities aplenty for me and my friends. Although I played on my share of poor teams, in junior high my soccer team went an entire season without loosing a game. We were undefeated! We all signed a soccer ball, and I like to think that ball still has a place in the trophy case among other accolades of that small private school.

Then there was the experience of the early Brett Favre years in Packer Country, when the entire state endured losing to the Cowboys in the playoffs for three straight years (!), only to make it to the big game the next two.

Success can be enjoyable, but it rarely comes without sacrafice.
What is it that we sacrafice on our way to achieving material success?

I often think about this tension in the context of family, career, and personal goals.
Which should come first? Our society values each of these.

I think that for most "family" is the obvious answer, but strangely the way we attempt to put family first is often by advancing our career.
And we can't ignore personal goals, because if we don't develop our own gifts and hobbies, we limit the ways others can enjoy our skills and experiences.

I think the key is to be conscious of how we view success, and to realize it is often a passing moment.
Enjoy it while it lasts, but realize that prestige isn't everything.