Mathematically you would say there is a not a difference between one and two (2 – 1) on one hand and between three and two (3 – 2) on the other. In both cases the difference is one (1). But when dealing with emotions there seems to be quite a difference. This is what a study revealed;

* In 1995, a study was carried out by social psychologists Victoria Medvec, Scott Madey and Thomas Gilovich on the effects of counterfactual thinking (thinking about how thing could have been) on the Olympics. The study showed that athletes who won the bronze medal were significantly happier with their winning than those athletes who won the silver medal. The silver medalists were more frustrated because they had missed the gold medal, while the bronze medalists were simply happy to have received any honors at all (instead of a fourth place). {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_medal}

What does this tell us about being (and feeling) successful?

It would be a pity when others may think that you are very successful (“look a silver medalist”) where you aren’t in fact feeling that successful. In fact you might feel as a looser, because only the number one position counts (for you).

But the bronze medalist feels good about the result, because he agrees with the outcome as being the best given the preparations and training before the games, or even knowing that his talent is limited. Not every outcome is that easily measured as the one of an Olympic Games with only three honored positions. But in line with the Games, there is no success without nearly unlimited sacrifices.