Achievement

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” — Zig Ziglar

Yesterday, after five years of competing in triathlons, I finally achieved my goal of finishing in under three hours.

It was close — 2:57:03  — but I did it.

Crossing that finish line was an emotional moment, captured in the photo above.

It took every ounce of physical and mental strength I had. The relief afterwards was immense.

For years, I’ve been slightly obsessed with chasing the number that represented that performance. That tunnel vision obscured the larger payoff I’ve gained in pursuit of the goal.

It’s easy to lose sight of why we chase our goals, to value the result more than the experience.

I’m proud of my performance, but that’s about my ego. That feeling has already faded. It’s shallow. Performance is finite. Measured.

But what stays - what lasts - is the potential that’s been unlocked. The discipline I’ve built. The growth that translates across all areas of life.

That’s why we set goals: not to chase numbers, but to challenge the stories we tell about ourselves.

To learn and grow. Expand and evolve.

Riding the Wave

In quantum physics, science describes two states of being at the same time called Superposition. 

Observed, a particle has a single place in space and time. Defined. Measured. Finite.

Unobserved, it exists as a wave of potential. Expansive. Limitless.

Think of yourself this way. 

When your mind is fixated on your pace, your time, your performance in any aspect of your life, you’re like the observed particle. Narrow. Locked in place.

And we’ve all been conditioned since our first day of school to be measured on performance. That’s why we all run on this programming. 

But our true ability is limitless. We are also that wave of potential.

You’ve probably had that rare experience of flow when you stopped thinking and awareness expanded — you become the wave. Limitless potential. Fully alive.

That’s what this image on this post captured. Overwhelmed by the experience of being tapped into that source off and on for a few hours during that race. 

Performance is what we measure.

Potential is what we become.

The Real Prize

The real prize isn’t the time on the clock. It’s the belief unlocked when you realize nothing is out of reach if pursued for the right reasons.

Adversity was my catalyst. I started this journey fighting for my son.

Our hardest challenges are our greatest teachers. They don’t just build physical strength, but spiritual strength.

That’s why it’s so hard to unlock.

Because spiritual growth is intangible.

You can’t hold it up for a picture. Nobody else knows it’s there.

But you do.

And once you see it, you can’t unsee it. From there, everything changes.

Author Jim Murphy says it best in Inner Excellence.

*“Your performance or achievement isn’t great because of the result.

The greatness lies in the person you become — the one meant to make a difference in the lives of others, the one who sacrificed to learn and grow and become someone they never knew they could become.

The process of learning and growing in love, wisdom, and courage — to become more fully you, through all the adversity — is what makes the achievement great.”*

Yesterday’s race is over. The performance is finished.

But the potential I tapped into, the belief and the understanding, will carry forward.

Belief that we are capable of anything we set our minds to.

Understanding that serving others is where real growth happens.

That’s the achievement that matters.

-Coach Kris