There Is No Finish Line

Don’t fall for the illusion of arrival. Thinking that one day, everything will be in its place and all will be perfect. That you won’t have to struggle anymore.

There’s an illusion that we achieve a goal and then it’s ours forever. We make the mistake of thinking we’ve earned it, it’s ours forever. Now we can relax.

Losing weight or accomplishing a goal is like running a marathon. We expect to bust through the finish line, take a picture and relax. But instead, we’re walked over to the start of another marathon. That second marathon is the holding on to what we’ve achieved.

There is no finish line. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that once you accomplish your goal, you’ll be forever content.

The real benefit of committing to a goal, to going all in on something, is learning the process. You realize that achieving excellence in one area of your life, can lead to it in anything.

The Japanese swordsman and philosopher Miymoto Musashi wrote that, “If you know the way broadly, you will see it in everything.”

You set a goal. You consistently work towards it each day. You don’t quit, even when it feels like you’re making no progress and eventually you achieve it. Then you pick the next goal and repeat. The more familiar you become with this process, the more you see how you can apply it in every area of your life.

Nick Saban preaches, “the process” at the University of Alabama. “Don’t think about winning the SEC Championship. Don’t think about the national championship. Think about what you needed to do in this drill, on this play, in this moment. That’s the process: Let’s think about what we can do today, the task at hand,” he says.

Love the process, because you’ll always be in it. Don’t just trust it until you reach a goal, prepare to spend your life in it.

Don’t fall for the, “before and after” trap. There is no after. There’s a before and a now. “After” insinuates there’s a finish line, some end to the grind. That’s when you have to fight harder than ever.

In each area of your life, what is the highest level you can consistently maintain? That’s the goal.

All success, all lasting achievement comes from consistency. In every area of your life, how can you consistently delay short term pleasure? How can you consistently rise above short-term pleasures for long term gains?

What are the healthiest foods you can eat over and over again? What is the workout regimen that you can do five times a week for the next 50 years?

That’s what to strive for. To become more than you are today. Not to achieve some short-term success and go back to who you were before.