How you define success is critically important.

Focus on things within your control, not circumstances over which you have none.

Winning, for example, is something you have little control over. Other competitors and external factors could derail your chances.

You’ll be crushed if things don’t pan out. Worse still, you won’t reach your full potential. You’ll be focused on beating the next guy’s potential instead of your own.

Doing your absolute best, however, is fully within your control. You can do something about it.

Define success in these terms. Define it by your level of effort instead of a scoreboard.

Of course, effort means nothing if you haven’t prepared.

Make giving full effort to preparation part of your definition of success.

Redefine success to mean giving maximum effort every day to everything in your life—family, friends, work, training, helping others, etc.

Do this and you’ll walk away a winner no matter what the scoreboard says.

Failing to do the prep work for your chosen field looks bad. It's unprofessional.

Even more absurd is acting like you have it all together without having done the reading.

Reading is doing the hard work of preparing to be the best. To understand those who’ve come before. To be familiar with the latest thought. It’s caring enough to put in the time and thinking things through.

The problem is that this approach requires two things above all others: hard work and discipline.

It’s far easier to skip out on the reading and pretend you know it all.

It’s even worse to replace reading with sarcasm and snide remarks.

Do you know what your reading must include? Are you aware of what’s on the list? Do you understand the ideas, arguments, and history you need to know?

If you won’t take the time to do the reading, why expect others to take you seriously?

Discipline does the reading and in so doing helps you take that next step forward. The step towards professionalism. The step towards being your best self.