What is your true goal?

I loved the feeling of hitting the ball in that perfect place where people couldn’t get to it or getting someone out and giving my team the chance to come out on top. I also loved seeing my parents proud of me and that all their hard work and sacrifice was paying off as well.(And when I didn’t love it anymore, when the winning wasn’t rewarding enough, I stopped advancing and stopped playing the game.)

Those experiences taught me how to pay the price necessary to be great. It taught me how to focus on the feelings that would drive me to reach my goals.

There were days I didn’t want to go to practice. There were times I didn’t want to try again. There were nights I was sore and not looking forward to the next day of training. Still, these things paled in comparison to the feelings I felt when all the hard work paid off and experienced the joy of playing with the best of the best in that moment in time.

So, what is your goal?

Are the feelings and rewards of that goal profound enough to inspire and motivate you to see it through? Are the feelings and rewards significant enough that you will do all the little things necessary to overcome the mountains that lay before you on the path to victory.

This may sound a little melodramatic to some but I’m telling you right now that the bigger the reward, the bigger the goal, the more work that it requires, the more commitment it will take on your behalf.

So, I ask you again, why this? Why this goal? Will it really mean everything you think it will? Is this big goal with all of its little tasks worthy of your best work? Will the finish line be so rewarding that you can be obsessed in your pursuit of achieving it?

Choose carefully. The “why” is important and it’s your best defense against lost time, regrets and misplaced priorities.

Excerpt from Chapter 1 of my Best Selling Book Finishing Is Happiness, which is available at TheFinishingBook.com.