You won’t ever “make it”.
There’s no one thing, goal or amount of money that will change everything. Each might spike your happiness for a day, a week, a month or maybe even a year. But, when the hedonic treadmill re-adjusts your expectations it’ll just set your sights higher and higher until the goalposts of life, like a rainbow, seem within reaching distance yet so far away at the same time.
It’s this pursuit of growth that is life’s infinite game.
To expand beyond our current limitations is what gives our lives meaning. To know that we are in some way closer to mastery of the object of our obsession. To shed our previous selves in eternal pursuit of the person we know we can become. It’s what purposeful living is all about.
But, this eternal journey is both a blessing and a curse.
It drives us to become ever greater versions of ourselves. To step into the shoes of those who used to inspire us. And to achieve feats of human potential that leave us feeling limitless. Whether it’s gruelling our body through an ultramarathon, raising our kids as a solo parent or changing the world with an industry defining start-up, each requires us to embrace growth and reject even the faintest hint of stagnation.
However, the endless chase to overcome our next challenge is also relentless. It asks us to trade in short-term pleasure for long-term success. Which is a price we’re more than happy to pay. And one forever worth affording. But, it often comes at a cost to our enjoyment of the only thing that truly exists - the here and now. As we delay gratification by turning down our friends and giving up our other interests we become a machine, obsessed with productivity that disregards it’s own feelings.
Over the short-term this is often necessary. But, stretch it too far over years and life will pass you by.
So, when you inevitably decide to take on that bigger goal of yours that will push you beyond your limits I ask you to remember one thing…
The Journey IS the Destination.
Those hours “putting in the reps” is actually what it’s all about. You don’t simply suffer them so you can one day take your prize. You live them. Every single day. And they mould you towards the person you have to become in order to achieve the goal that you’ve obsessed over within your mind.
There are no shortcuts. No hacks. No one piece of knowledge that if only you learnt earlier would have changed everything. The truth, and you probably already knew it deep down, was that the answer is hard work. And lots of it.
So, that by the time race day arrives you’ve already completed 99% of the goal. You’ve learnt how to swim properly, you’ve taken your fitness to new heights and you’re mentally prepared for what’s ahead. For the last 12 months of training WERE the challenge. What’s left is simply the cherry on top that closes out the final few paragraphs of the chapter you’ve already written.
So, enjoy the achievement at the end. But, do not live for it.
Do it when it’s hard. But, appreciate it when it’s easy.
Grow relentlessly. But, never forget how far you’ve come.
And strive forward, not with a never-ending desire to prove something to someone, but with a genuine curiosity for how far life can take you.
Because even though you’re already a complete human being you get only this one life and you might as well see what’s possible with it.