Achieving Greatness Without Falling Apart

https://thegrowtheq.com/achieving-greatness-without-falling-apart/

The link above goes to the full article, which is great. Here are a few parts that I think are key for distance runners.

How do we channel the passion, drive, and borderline obsession that the greats often possess, without letting it consume us? 

The same drive that propels us forward can also get in the way. It can become too much, transforming from controlled motivation to something a bit more radical. 

Elite performers are great at harnessing the forces that make them good, without letting it blow themselves up.

Hyper-competitiveness is when we get caught up trying to maintain our sense of self through winning. We seek validation through the external. On the other hand, self-developmental competitiveness occurs when the internal matters more than the external. It’s about growing through competing, discovering who we are, what we’re capable of, and how to improve. It’s the popular adage of being addicted to the process.

When we let the hyper-competitive take over, it’s never fulfilling. We keep chasing the thing, never quite able to satisfy our sense of self, because the rewards and accolades never fill us up. In extreme cases, it pushes athletes to cheating, because obtaining their goal is more important than anything else. Or perhaps it pushes them towards either being miserable or burned out. It’s like an addiction.

Kobe Bryant, when asked whether he was the type of player that “hated to lose” or “loved to win,” gave a ​unique answer​: “Neither…I play to figure things out, to learn something.”

Make sure that the inner balances the outer. In the competitive crucible, we have to acknowledge that winning matters. And that we can’t escape our society’s prioritization of and pull towards outcomes. But, we can keep it from becoming self-defining and self-defeating.

That’s the central tension of performance. It’s balancing internal and external, it’s caring deeply but being able to let go just enough so you don’t tense up. It’s harnessing the emotional energy so that it doesn’t destroy you.

Here is a mantra: “Find peace in the quest.”