As weightlifters, we strive for success in our lifts. For many of us, if not most of us, that means technical completion of the lifts. However, I think that success can also be measured by a different standard:  the resolve to attempt again when one misses a lift.

Thinker

I recently finished my first semester of my third and final year of law school. After finals, the period of exams that dictates law students’ grades and arguably their job prospects, I felt like a failure despite being weeks away from receiving my grades and discovering how I did–as do many law students, I’m sure. It got me to thinking about the meaning of success and how to succeed in my final semester at law school. Naturally, I began to get very philosophical about all this, and, as I tend to do in life, I turned to Rocky Balboa. I’m sort of a virtue ethicist and so sometimes I look to archetypes of virtue to help me make my decisions–to my fiance’s dismay; she’s always telling me to think for myself! One model I respect is the Rocky Balboa model. His story is not just the story of a guy who comes from nothing and rises to the top–and in my opinion that’s not his real success. Instead, as he explains in his final movie, his story is the story of a guy that keeps getting up, no matter how many times he’s knocked down. Even when he just wants to stay down and the last thing he wants to do is get back up, he keeps getting up.

This, I think, is real success. Thus, success in my finals is not necessarily determined by my grades but instead can be determined by how I respond to my grades:  whether I  get back up on my feet and face my next semester with the resolve to do better. Likewise, in weightlifting, I think success can be measured by the resolve to do the lift again, ever-improving. Success, then, is not necessarily the end achieved but can instead be the resolve exercised in pursuing that end.