Defining Our Accomplishments

Defining ourselves by our accomplishments.  

There are people who will always be on top.  On top in school with grades, with athletics, and with popularity.  There will always be that mom that has 8 kids and a spotless house, bakes cookies, volunteers for the PTA and holds her whole family together.  Or that co-worker that advanced quickly, is loved by peers, gets the bonus, etc.  Are those truly accomplishments? Are those people proud of that process? Are they truly making a difference?

My biggest accomplishment is in something far different.  
I am a coach.  
A cheer coach.  
I teach groups of kids how to be leaders.  How to time manage and budget family, school, friends and responsibility.  We teach our kids how to be upstanding members of society through leadership, discipline and dedication.  They work hard.  My kids didn't start out cheering since they were small.  Many of them learned everything they know about cheer from me.  Even harder to define is how I have succeeded in this process.  We are not judged on a weekly basis through a score.  I have learned to judge success as a cheerleading coach by the progress and excitement in the kids.  They are successful when they have hit their routines perfectly at a game.  When they finish all their homework, cheer at the game and put in a few hours at work.  They are successful when at the end of the day they are proud of themselves and the hard work they put in, even if it’s not understood by their peers.  As a coach, my MOST successful moments are those when I run into a former student many years later and they talk about their time on my team.  They are proud of what they accomplished as a group and what they overcame as an individual.  So many of them thank me for being hard on them and teaching them lessons that they still use into adulthood.  This is my biggest accomplishment.  Leading, guiding and mentoring so many wonderful young athletes.  I am successful because I know for one small moment I made a difference in their life.  Whether they were successful or not as a cheerleader, they learned lessons that make them successful in the future. They will always have a cherished piece of my heart.  That defines my success.