Reflections from the previous busy days when new clients and projects have been developed, at the same time as I’ve started my training for an IronMan 70.3. Plus… it is early in the year when goals and objectives are fresh and the tank is full of gas.
The goals might sound simple: fulfilling the team budget and finishing the 70.3. Two simple goals for this year. Clear enough.
However, I’ve started asking myself what would be the feeling once these are completed? I’m confident enough to get to both finish lines. But I can not control what happens during the journey.
In order to reach our goals, we work long hours, train hard, set priorities, say no to too many things and concentrate our energy towards those ideals. The process is normally hard, and sometimes too hard that we might realize the effort is not worth the goal, or that we want it so bad that we put our everything to get it.
By the time we reach the goal, we swim in happiness for a period of time (normally short and never longer than the whole process). But we might also be too old, grumpy, tired or simply gone. Just realizing that the satisfaction feeling lasts shorter than the process made me think twice about my approach. I spend more time trying to reach the goal than celebrating it.
Then, the gap is clear: if I want to enjoy more, focus should be in the process rather than in the finish line. Yes, it means enjoying the struggle, the late evenings at work, feeling the uncertainty, the planning, the challenges, the mistakes and the dirt. It means enjoying the early morning runs, the cycling and the swimming even if it is not my favorite. Because by the end of the year, probably standing at the finish line, it will be too short until we get notice of the next budget goal for 2023.
Enjoy the journey, the process, the dirt, the struggle. It is what we have today and lasts longer than the celebration.
David Perez 