It’s about the journey
There’s an old Chinese proverb that says, “the journey is as important as the destination” and I believe that if we pay attention to the journey and we take the right choices along the way, we can reach the destination being a better person than we were at the start.
We don’t just arrive somewhere. We become someone.
Pay attention to each step, and you’ll reach the finish line a stronger, wiser person than when you began. Essentially it comes down to making better choices because success is not final and failure is not fatal.
It’s the courage to keep moving forward that makes life meaningful.
Greatness is a journey that begins with the impossible and turns into the unforgettable. That’s why people say “life is a marathon, not a sprint.” Because just like a marathon, the journey of life is full of highs and lows. There is pain in training but also joy at the end of the marathon. There are mental battles and but also eventual triumph.
In the end, the journey itself is a gift. And success? That’s just the reward for daring to take the road less travelled.
Destination Obsession
Too often, we treat life like a sprint to the finish line:
We talk about life as a marathon, but we fixate on the end‑result rather than the miles of training.
We dream of summits, but resent the uphill climb.
We imagine success as a final trophy, instead of a series of small wins along the way.
Let’s take hiking as an example - ironically, the purpose of going for a hike is not to get to the top of the mountain.
It’s to be on the trail.
To watch every step you make on a difficult terrain, listen to the sounds of nature, observe your surroundings while also keeping an eye on the prize so that you don’t get lost. If you focus on the trail, whatever step you’re on, and keep reminding yourself that this is going to lead you somewhere, that is where the meaning of the journey reveals itself.
In life, do the same: immerse yourself in the task at hand.
That destination‑obsession creates impatience, disappointment, and even burnout. As a result, we miss the real gift: the learning, the struggle, and the quiet victories that happen moment by moment.
Fall in Love with the Process
The person that loves walking will walk further than the person who love the destination. When you love the journey the goals just happen and you end up hitting the goals as a side effect, because at that point it doesn’t matter if you can lift this much weight or run that fast…
The journey consists of sucking at something, failing multiple times, getting better, learning from your mistakes, and doing it over and over again.
You end up being focused on the journey because you just know that it’s going to bring results.
When you fall in love with the journey everything else takes care of itself.
It’s very difficult to compete with somebody that is enjoying themselves. There is a study done on a German tennis player Steffi Graf, where they rated kids in the German tennis program on motivation to train, and skill and aptitude. They would train regularly 6 hours a day to simply perfect their top spin, and they only had the supervisors for 3 hours per week. The rest of the work was on them and their will to make it into the team. In a scale 1 to 10, she came in as a 10 on motivation to train, and 10 on skill and aptitude. So even if someone is as skilled as she is, Steffi will out outwork that person and to her it won’t even feel like work. It’s simply unbelievably difficult to compete with someone who’s just having fun doing what they do.
When you love doing what you do, the results just happen.
Nobody can beat you at being you. There is only one version of you. Be ready to outrun yourself, ignore the pains, sores, blisters, rashes and fear to compete against other people.
You are your only competition.
Steffi Graf out‑trained everyone not because she was more talented, but because training felt like play. When you truly enjoy the process, you work harder and it doesn’t even feel like work.
Accountability
“We are what we repeatedly do.”
- Aristotle
If you want to succeed, you must consistently work toward your goals. The late nights, the self‑doubt, the failures - they’re invisible to others, but you know they’re part of your story.
Look, I get it. Life does get heavy sometimes but thankfully I’ve been blessed with family who taught me to believe in impossible things. Most importantly, these people have taught me to believe in impossible things which gave me faith that the journey of life requires.
Seek mentors, friends, loved ones, ANYONE who can hold you accountable and who will remind you that you’re capable of more than you know. And if you can’t do that, look into the mirror, have a chat with yourself and commit to accountability yourself. Supportive people like this are necessary, because we often cut our own wings with negative self-talk and thus limit our own potential.
Remember: the road ahead will have hurdles, detours, and speed bumps.
Expect them.
Learn from them.
Embrace them.
They’re not roadblocks - they’re the very steps that shape your journey.
Identify your why - the purpose that keeps you moving when the top of the mountain feels far away.
Know this: as you read this, there is hard work ahead of you. If you have a series of goals you want to accomplish, it will not be easy. There will be countless moments when you want to give up, when you want to quit, when it seems highly unlikely that you will ever accomplish what you set out to do. If you don’t understand this going in, and you are blindsided by this doubt, you will fail.
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail, and this applies equally when the failure comes from lack of understanding. The road ahead will contain hurdles, detours, speed bumps, and everything in between. If you know this going in, you will learn to expect them and develop the resiliency and resolve to face them head on.
Do your homework, look to the examples of those who have already achieved what you want to achieve. Follow their journeys to prepare yourself for what may arise on yours. If you can understand the enemy that is your doubt, uncertainty, strife, and hardship then your likelihood of success will increase accordingly. Other people will not notice the late nights, early mornings, self-doubt, failures, obstacles, risks taken or time invested, but they will surely see your results. And most likely will end up calling you lucky.
Don’t expect them to understand.
Just enjoy the journey.
Keep going.