We need to pursue excellence as opposed to a sole focus on attaining a goal or winning. Change our focus to the inputs and process and not just the results.
I finally read the book, Atomic Habits by James Clear – a great read that I highly recommend. I especially liked the section on Goals versus Systems. Goals are specific outcomes or achievements we strive to obtain. They provide a sense of direction and purpose, giving us something to aim for. However, goals are centered on the result. This can lead to a fixation on reaching the destination without fully appreciating the journey. Goals are also binary; they are either achieved or not. Systems, on the other hand, focus on the process; the daily habits and routines that lead to progress. The commitment needs to be to the process that will determine our progress, to the importance of building sustainable and effective practices.
My aha moment was during my company’s semi-annual walking challenge. My focus was on our team winning the challenge, which required 100% attainment of a weekly goal during the six-week challenge. When we failed to meet the goal in week 3, the overall goal was lost. However, the health and wellness benefits were still achievable. So, the focus needed to move from the result to the habits and routines that could lead to lasting change.
Goals are often static, a point in time where the achievement either happens or it doesn’t. When we set a goal, whose achievement becomes the main source of motivation, we need to be careful. Not achieving that goal can crush our self-esteem. However, we can never stop growing, learning, building, and evolving. Mainly because life never stops coming at us. We need to train for excellence, to allow ourselves to be transformed by the training process.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all about goal setting and striving to win. I think Benjamin Mays, an American Minister and Civil Rights icon is spot on with his quote, “The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.” I just think we have an unhealthy obsession with winning. Take for example, Andy Reid, who has is a great coach, has been now for a couple of decades. Yet until he won the Super Bowl, he lived with the ‘but’ that was on his resume – “he is a great coach, but …” In 2024, Ohio State University was strongly considering firing their head football coach Ryan Day after another loss to Michigan and then just weeks later, resigned him to a 7 year multi-million-dollar contract after winning the National Championship. Olympic athletes that fall just barely short of winning a medal fail to gain our admiration, as well as lucrative endorsements. Yet, they share the same traits of discipline, focus, willingness to sacrifice, and grace under pressure exhibited by the Olympic champions.
Our reverence for “winners” can be a bit unnerving. We’ve defined winning in a way that promises far more than it can deliver. It has become attainable for just a tiny percentage of people. We push children who show a glimmer of talent to focus on one sport before they’re teenagers, and even to sacrifice their bodies, so that they might become champions – in middle school. We tell teenagers, the key to success is getting into a top-rated college, even though there are hundreds of schools at which it’s possible to get a great education. When they graduate, society tells them, a key measure of achievement is financial success, and too often they pursue it believing that more and more money will eventually translate into happiness.
True winners are people who consistently invest effort to become better at what they do, regardless of whether they win anything. They have a mutual quest for excellence. They have direction and motivation, plus recognize that satisfaction comes from the everyday experience of moving towards any given goal. The pursuit of any challenging goal is usually long and difficult, with the pleasure of the victory brief. The poet Robert Louis Stevenson asked, “Is there anything in life so disenchanting as attainment?”
True winners also use their skills not just to build their own value, but also to add value in the world, to give back and pay forward. Jimmy Connors and Andre Agassi both won the same number of Grand Slam tournaments during their careers. Connors invested in casinos after he retired from tennis. Agassi invested in building a charitable foundation, a charter school, and a residence for abused and neglected children in Las Vegas. In my book, only one of them is a real winner.
Winning can be a form of idolization if we aren’t careful. While earthly achievements and victories can be enjoyable, wanting to win for worldly acclaim or to gain access to social circles, power over others, or to feel loved, is not healthy. Our value is not in victory or on the scoreboard, but instead it is in God.
Pope John Paul 2 challenged us, the laity, to “be saints in the world.” This emphasizes our continuous role in evangelizing and transforming society through pursing excellence in our everyday lives and actions. This process begets the progression of qualities as noted in 2 Peter 1:5-8, beginning with faith, then virtue, knowledge, endurance, devotion, mutual affection and leading to the fullness of Christian life, which is love.
Pursue excellence in all areas, with the understanding that by focusing on purpose in Christ, serving God and others, and living with an eternal perspective, true fulfillment and lasting triumph will rise above the temporary nature of worldly success.
