The Journey

“So often we become so focused on the finish line that we fail to enjoy the journey.” -Dieter F. Uchtdorf. Many of us as human beings naturally have goals in life, especially as athletes. That goal may be to make that new personal record you have been pushing toward, qualify or win state and to be the number one athlete in your sport.  This also can be applied to your health, like reaching a goal body weight, fitting a certain way in your clothes or waking up and feeling a energized and good about who you are and where you are going.

Here, we hope you choose to focus on the latter two, and as coaches, we are here to help you create realistic goals that will challenge you. However, too many people these days are looking for the quick fix and soon fall off the wagon or get discouraged from the amount of time it takes to truly become healthy.

Building friendly relationships is a great way to start out your journey in reaching your goals. Some of your goals may not be easy to obtain, but reaching your goals may not be as hard with a friendly environment. Having that group of friends that keep you on your toes and hold you accountable is a great way to start your journey. If you have that, then you would look forward to making healthy choices and continually go to the gym. That way when you make progress there are friends that can see your growth and encourage you further. Also when having a bad day your friendly community will be there to support you and make those days better.

There are people who like challenges and there are people who like to win easy. Either way is totally fine, but eventually during your lifetime you are going to go through some tough challenges. This is where you set up short term goals that would further lead up to your long term goals. You should always have fun during the journey towards your goals. If not, then you’re not going to have the luxury of finishing your goals as you will burn out and quit eventually. As for me during high school track season, my 4×800 team and I were 100% focused on making it to state and earning the pride of going to a state meet. The thing is, we were so focused on the prize that we weren’t having fun, forcing ourselves to maintain a strict nutrition and training plan with little to no leeway was a recipe for being miserable. Next thing you know the regional meet comes around and I became sick and my teammate was injured. We still raced and didn’t qualify for state.

The two things that I want you to take away from this are that you should build friendly relationships and to enjoy the journey as you come closer in reaching your goals. It’s not about the destination but the journey. That way, when you look back and have great memories to recall from and can proudly say you’ve reached your goals and during that journey you maintained a healthy balance of fitness and having fun!