I am definitely not remembering the exact words, but the conversation sometime at the end of last year went a little like this:
“You ran over one thousand miles this year – that’s really impressive!”
“Well, thanks. I appreciate it.”
“It’s a big deal! You should be very proud of yourself!”
“I am. It is! Well …”
“. . . what?”
“It might be less of a big deal than you think …”
“Why would you say that?”
“It does not seem so special now?
“You’re really downplaying this whole thing!”
“I am not actually. You could -“
“Why … won’t you just accept the compliment?!”
Two positions, different and both with merit. There is something interesting going on here.
It was a big goal at the beginning and I did have to work on it regularly and frequently throughout the year. That does matter. On the other hand, doing the work changes you into someone, who knows what it is like to do that work.
Sure, I was still paying attention to it, but towards the end, it seemed obvious I would get there and probably nothing big was going to happen.
Of course, not all goals are like this, but clearly the way you think about a goal can change on the way towards it.
It reminds me a bit of another favorite quote:
To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want.
Charlie Munger
There are probably a few different ways to interpret this and find meaning in it. Perhaps simplistic, but here is my clearest perspective on it: If you want the result, you have to do the work to bring it about.
If your goal is to run one thousand miles in a year, then you have to do the running of one thousand miles. That is the precise way of getting the result of having done so.
The result then is the lagging indicator, the direct consequence of the work that was done. There is of course at least one other (less direct) consequence.
The things you do become your experience. Your experiences change you and affect the story you tell yourself and what you believe of yourself.
The work that seems momentous before you begin, can appear quite doable, once you are mostly there or have actually done it. There is hindsight, sure, but you are also not the same person anymore.
Sometimes, the level you reached becomes your new baseline. One thousand now seems straightforward, but two thousand still look very far away!
I can guess about how my perspective will change by the end of a year, but mostly I am just looking forward to experiencing it.
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