I was stuck in traffic the other day with a friend when we saw a giant billboard on the side of the highway that said:
“Winning is Always Worth It.”
We turned to each other and said, “Is it though?”
That question spiraled into one of those deep conversations, and I want to share with you the story I shared with him.
I played football, basketball, and baseball growing up, and then I really focused on track and running. I realized there was going to be a local 5k road race in my town.
About 150 people signed up. Most would be in the back, walking with their friends, drinking an iced coffee, catching up on life, and enjoying the view. The winner would typically have their name in a paragraph in the local paper and get a little medal as well.
So the first year, I decided to run and I got in the Top Ten.
The next year I ran again And I won the whole thing.
The next year I won again. And then again again. And then again. And then again.
Five years in a row, I won this race.
I’m not telling you this to brag. There’s actually a lesson to the story because from my perspective, it probably wasn’t even worth it.
Usually in December, I would start getting nervous for this race. The crazy thing is: the race wasn’t until the following June.
As everyone else was drinking hot chocolate and watching Christmas movies, I would be out in the snow running up and down the side streets in my town and doing push-ups on the frozen grass in the park.
My friends would invite me to parties and I would say “no” because I was afraid there was going to be pizza there. And if I ate that pizza, well, that could have impacted my diet and maybe I wouldn’t win the race. (I was really weird back then. I’m still a little weird now.)
But something slowly changed. I wasn’t getting the texts to hang out anymore. I realized that the majority of photos on my phone were all about the training I was doing or how many push-ups I did that day, all because of this local 5K road race.
So one year I asked myself: Is this worth it? And I wanted to find out.
Instead of running the race that year, the day of the race I actually went into Boston and hung out with my friend. We rode bikes around town and explored the city. We saw live music.
And surprisingly, I felt relieved. I felt refreshed. I didn’t miss that road race at all.
And that’s when I realized that life isn’t about winning all the time. Life isn’t about getting a medal in every single thing that you do. Life is about connecting with others, going on adventures, and sometimes life is just about going on a walk with your friends, drinking some iced coffee, and enjoying the view.