Succeeding and winning are two terms that have similar meanings but are different in many ways. These terms play a big part in individuals’ lives whether it is through everyday tasks, education, careers, lifestyle, or sports. However, sports are where succeeding and winning often go hand in hand with teams and individuals. This is due to the competitive nature, experiences, and emotions sports offer.
Succeeding vs. winning
“When you work hard putting in the time, effort, and staying dedicated to something, you start to see progress whether it’s a little milestone,” Kenzi Eldabh, swimmer on the women’s swim team, said.
Succeeding can be seen with many different student-athletes who push themselves in the sports they participate in and reach milestones.
“In swimming, it could be either a few millisecond drop or a long-distance event that the player achieves,” Eldabh said. “I swam a 500, and I was getting the same time every meet for like five to six meets. When I finally dropped time, it was like a breath of relief because it finally happened.”
Winning is the outcome of a team competition. Brittany Runyen, women’s soccer assistant coach, said, “Winning is a team coming together to accomplish a common goal. Putting your mind to something and wanting to complete it.” She said, “On Saturday we played [Fairleigh Dickinson University] who is undefeated, and won. It was a big win for them and so exciting.”
Despite the difference between succeeding and winning, a connection exists between these two terms. There are times when winning comes within the process of succeeding; an athlete encounters mini-wins that push and motivate them to continue succeeding.
“Mini-wins are the little success that you find along the way. For example, in soccer, we talk about winning and if we want to win then we have to score goals. But we don’t score a lot of goals and we get frustrated with that. For some individual players, finally overcoming not being able to shoot the ball where they could before is the mini-wins in succeeding,” Runyen said.
Short-term vs. long-term
Succeeding and winning can be viewed as long-term and short-term goals. Succeeding is building that moment up
to result in something greater. Winning is temporary, something that is happening in the moment.
“We tell our team, it’s great if we win a game but we want to win the season too. So that long-term goal for us of winning our conference championship, and going far in the NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic Association] tournament is our success and us succeeding,” Runyen said.
Succeeding offers emotions that can last a long time for an individual. As for emotions that come with winning, they may last a short amount of time.
“Succeeding, you get a little more sense of gratification and satisfaction. It’s when you can reflect back and see something that’s done, then say to yourself that it was successful. When it comes to winning, it is just a feeling of excitement,” Runyen said.
