I think I’ll probably always listen to what an astronaut says but this comment is particularly good. Chris Hadfield:
If you view crossing the finish line as the measure of your life, you’re setting yourself up for a personal disaster. There are very very very few people who win gold at the Olympics. And if you say, ‘if I don’t win gold then I’m a failure or I’ve let somebody down or something,’ .. What if you win a silver? What if you win a bronze? What if you come fourth? What if your binding comes apart? … What if all of those millions of things that happen in life happen. … Only a few people that go there are going to win gold. And it’s the same in some degree I think in commanding a spaceship or doing a spacewalk it is a very rare, singular moment-in-time event in the continuum of life. And you need to honour the highs and the peaks in the moments — you need to prepare your life for them — but recognize the fact that the preparation for those moments is your life and, in fact, that’s the richness of your life. … The challenge that we set for each other, and the way that we shape ourselves to rise to that challenge, is life.
Read the whole piece to also see a video of Hadfield saying it.
This rather fits in with both the idea that it takes time to grow a business – The 1,000 Day Rule (28 February, 2014) – and that maybe we shouldn’t focus so much on goals – Don’t Plan So Much (27 February). It’s also true of drama: if the only interesting thing about a story is the ending, like discovering whodunnit at the end of a thriller, then it’s not drama. It’s more a puzzle.
And if I were to go all Hallmark-Card-like about it, I’d say that the ending is one day and the journey is a lifetime, we should enjoy the lifetime. I can’t believe I just said that.