Trophies Aren't Always The Best Measure of Success

​I spent the weekend at Ian's lacrosse tournament. If you look at the final standings from the weekend - if you study the scoreboard - it might appear that his team didn't win.

It's true. They did not walk away from the tournament with a trophy. They played 4 games and only won one of them. Yet, they did not lose a single game. In the most improbable of ways, they tied all three games they played on Saturday - the games that determined who got to advance to the championship round on Sunday.

As it turned out, Ian's team failed to advance on those three ties.

But, when it came to that championship round the next day, the three teams Ian's team tied ended up in the final four. Two of them advanced to the championship game. And in the end, Ian's team was the only team the ultimate champions did not beat.

The scoreboard often tells an important story, but it rarely tells the whole story.

Ian and I had a four hour drive home from the tournament. We had a lot of time to talk about some measures of winning that go beyond the scoreboard.

Vince Lombardi once said, "The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have." The three teams Ian's team tied were from Las Vegas (eventual champions), New Jersey and Pennsylvania. They held their ground against teams from all over the country. This summer, they’ve sometimes struggled to prove they belong in these bigger tournaments, but not this weekend. By Sunday, there was no doubt: they belonged.

Confidence is one of the greatest victories one can take away from any experience in life.

How about you? Are there areas in your life where someone might look at the scoreboard and think you're losing, but you know inside that scoreboard is the story of someone doing the absolute best with what they have?

Are there challenges in your life that maybe you aren't beating but by God they aren't beating you either?

Are there some ties in your life you and others really need to be celebrating as wins?

I'm not promoting participation trophies here. I'm simply challenging us to stop judging ourselves and those around us by the number of trophies they have. Sometimes we are winning battles in life that simply don't have trophies to show for it.

It's interesting. On Sunday Ian's team dominated the team they got to play in the consolation bracket. The scoreboard declared them winners. And yet, I found myself far more impressed with the way they played on Saturday in the games they did not win.

Winning doesn't always look like winning.

Sometimes winning looks like showing up, belonging, holding your own in spaces few others could.

Sometimes winning looks like walking away from a day knowing you're better than you were when that day arrived.

With that, we all get a chance to win today. And when we do, it's likely that win won't be measured by a trophy.