In war, victories come because of teamwork. This is also commonly true in business, service organizations, public safety, challenging adventures, and many other avenues in life. It seems less common for an individual to reach a sizeable goal completely alone.

Victory is achieved because a team chooses to join together in a common mission with an unwavering commitment to completing it. Business Dictionary’s definition of teamwork is: The process of working collaboratively with a group of people in order to achieve a goal.

This definition can be broken down into four parts:

• Working – success requires work. There is no way around this and generally no shortcuts available. Diligent efforts must go into strategizing, organizing, assigning tasks, taking responsibilities and fulfilling roles.

This year, my oldest daughter Elizabeth hiked the 2,193 mile Appalachian Trail, which begins at Springer Mountain, Georgia and concludes on Mount Katahdin in northern Maine. When she was about ¼ of the way toward completion, she shared with me, “Dad, everyday, I have to get up and decide that I am going to hike again, regardless of the weather, how I feel, if I am in pain or not, or what the upcoming trail is like.”

Tenacious work involves realizing that there are no easy paths to get to the end, but instead putting in the effort required to get there.

• Collaboratively with a group of people – together is a key word in most significant accomplishments. Whether there is a visible group joined together on a project or a coach or mentor behind the scenes, collaboration is typically the mode of success.

While Elizabeth chose to hike alone during parts of various days, she shared that people camped together for the nights, shared food, encouraging words, stories, outdoor experience, and built friendships.

• In order to achieve – the team connects regularly for a purpose. They are striving after something and they join together for the purpose of crossing their particular finish line. They do not plan on failing, and even if they do temporarily experience set backs, they are only another step in obtaining success.

Elizabeth was far from family and close friends for 99.98% of the journey. (I hiked 41 miles with her from Harper’s Ferry, WV to the Pennsylvania state line.) She had a particular group of trail friends that she hiked chunks of the journey with. Through their resourcing each other along the way, they helped individual group members to be victorious instead of falling short.

• A goal – Why did the team form a unit in the beginning? The purpose of the team’s efforts from the beginning was to reach the intended end. They had a target to hit and hitting it as planned was their ultimate reason for joining together. It was to accomplish their overall mission.

Elizabeth’s aim from her first step on the trail at Springer Mountain was to touch the sign on Mount Katahdin. That goal kept her going through eleven sprained ankles, stomach issues, tendonitis, torrential rain, cold temperatures, dangerous wildlife, encountering questionable people, pit toilets or no toilet, endless days of trail food, and much, much more.

A team. It is largely the way that we are designed to function. To help others. To work towards purposeful goals. To finish.

Teamwork requires adjustments on everyone’s part, and that is a part of the victory as we are changed through the process of hitting our bull’s eye.

I encourage us all to set worthwhile goals, gather human support around us, and to move forward to accomplish them.