When you're a kid, you get a medal just for stepping on the field.
You show up and everyone tells you how great you are, and how your soccer skills could take you all the way to the Olympic team. They tell you how you're fast enough to run marathons in record time. And even if, when the day of that big final race or game comes, and you completely blow it and choke it, there will still be a medal hanging around your neck by the time you go to bed.
You grow up thinking you're the best and get rewarded for any effort you put in. Rather than having to work hard for recognition, you are tricked into thinking the whole world will give you a standing ovation just for existing. And then that one day when medals are given only to the winners or the standouts, your world feels like it has fallen apart. You lose faith in all of your skills, not just the one, because you begin to question whether you actually deserved all the medals you have collected.
Everyone always says that you get an "A for effort" when you try but don't succeed, but that's not how the world works. The world doesn't give you an A for your efforts; it gives an A to those who excel. Sometimes just trying isn't enough. And if I can win the same medal or trophy or plaque by just showing my face as I would if I came in first place, then what motivates me to really work hard to improve?
It's safe to say that effort shouldn't be rewarded. Everyone can't be the best at everything but with some hard work, you can be the best at something. Effort should be rewarded so that we are encouraged to try, and try harder. But success, above all, should be recognized most of all.
I don't want to get an A for effort.
I want to be heralded for excelling.
I want to be encouraged to work harder, put in that extra effort and go beyond average and achieve greatness.
Participation medals encourage complacency. If we encourage nothing more than effort, then what are we teaching our kids? In life, it won't be enough to just show up. It won't be enough to show your face. You have to make a difference, stand out and exceed all the rest. You have to be exceptional. You have to find your passion and prove that you are more than just one of many who can exist – that you are one who can take things to the next level.
I never stopped getting participation medals. Even in college, my professor will give me points just for attending lecture – I don't even need to pay attention while I'm there. And everyone will get some kind of award at any workplace when the year ends, even if it is something like "best laugh" (because your laugh is totally something you can control and work to be best at). Despite receiving these to this very day, I no longer look at them like my bright-eyed, childhood-self used to, I look at them as fuel for wanting to work even harder.
Don't be complacent. Don't take an A for effort or a participation medal as the end of your journey. Take them in stride as you work toward your greater goals. Your efforts are worthwhile, but the true prize is when you can say you have tried as hard as you possibly could. Strive for bigger and better – strive for an A for success.
