By Brad Locke
September 30, 2005

(AgapePress) - I know the secret to being a successful coach or athlete. It's the only trait that can lead one to athletic glory, a trait shared by all who have tasted victory again and again.

They are never satisfied.

Celebrations, while often elaborate and joyful, are usually brief in today's sporting culture. Winning a championship is like eating a big, juicy steak -- you can only savor it for so long before you have to digest it and move on to the next course. It's a sad truth, because the amount of toil required to succeed far exceeds the satisfaction of the reward. It's even a sadder truth when a person believes reaching the top is the only way to achieve happiness.

If the Patriots had been satisfied with their one Super Bowl victory, they wouldn't have gotten the other two. If the Yankees had been satisfied with their late-90s dominance, they would not be striving so hard to regain it (and they've never really been that far removed from it). Not being satisfied is the greatest motivation. It drives champions to perform at an even higher level the next time out; it brings out the perfectionist in a person. Tony Dungy built a grand defensive legacy in Tampa Bay (and now he's doing it in Indianapolis), but he always thought his guys could play a little bit better, that he could coach a little better.

There is nothing wrong with not being satisfied (excepting the aforementioned proviso concerning misplaced happiness); it leads to excellence. I don't think I've ever been 100-percent satisfied with a story or column I've written, because I know I could have written more vividly or tightly, or done more thorough reporting. Every time I let a piece go down the editing path toward publication, the moment of release is accompanied by a certain amount of dread: Did I get every little fact right, did I waste any words, is every phrase written succinctly, is the structure sound, does it flow well ... the questions never end.

We should not confuse this with being dissatisfied. Being habitually dissatisfied is unhealthy, and it means you're either a) too hard on yourself, or b) you stink at what you do. Coaches and athletes know when they've executed something perfectly or accomplished their goal, and they rightly enjoy it. But they mustn't linger in the moment, or the next day they'll get run over.

So it should be for the Christian. Paul told the Philippians that he was constantly "straining forward to what lies ahead" (3:13). He was not satisfied with what he had accomplished for Christ to that point. In fact, he also said in that verse that he was "forgetting what lies behind ..." That's what we have to do -- forget the past, whether it's good or bad. Otherwise, the past will haunt you and hinder your progress. Never be content with where you stand spiritually; as sinful humans, we can always do better. When God forgives sin, He forgets it; and He doesn't keep score of our good deeds, so we need to forget those, too.

This is all tied together by a crucial principle that was driven home for me in a recent Bible study group: All we need to remember is what God has done for us, not what we have done for or against God. Press on, don't be satisfied. The ultimate, eternal reward will be well worth it.