Vegan Bodybuilding: The adventure is the journey, not the destination

Sunday, 17 June 2018

The adventure is the journey, not the destination

By Pete Ryan

Many people have dreams, goals and desires that they wish to achieve. You may want to be Mr Olympia, become a champion powerlifter or have 6-pack abs. Whatever the goal or dream, remember this fact. It is not the goal that is the important feature of this idea, it is the journey to that goal that will decide if you achieve it or not. In fact you may or may not actually succeed in that goal, so deciding on a goal becomes “Is the journey itself worth the sacrifice and effort”. Suppose I said you will go to the gym, drive yourself hard for over a decade and you will not become a pro bodybuilder, is the journey itself enough to drive you? If you say it is not, then I would not pick that journey. To succeed the journey needs to be enough to sustain you, you need to love the process that leads to that goal. We are not being simplistic, obviously some aspects of any goal may be dull, scary or even unpleasant, but overall you need to enjoy the process to succeed. Winning a medal is a fleeting moment in time, a blip in your life, but the journey to that goal can take years or even decades to complete, so consider the process before you decide on a goal. If you want 6-pack abs, but love fatty food and exciting dining adventures, then giving that all up may not be the best journey choice you could make. Maybe just staying trim and in decent shape while still enjoying regular culinary adventures is a thing that would add depth and appreciation to your life? If you want to be the strongest man in the world, but hate the gym, then maybe you’d be better finding a goal that didn’t involve so much of life in a gym situation? You have one life, spending the majority of it doing something you do not want to do seems very wasteful of your time.

It is surprising how many people do not think of the process when they begin to choose a goal. They think of college in terms of what will give them the highest paid career, they think of jobs in terms of what will be the most financially successful. In both of these outcomes they have not thought if they will enjoy those courses or the job that follows. Let me offer you two job examples; One pays a lot, you will have a fabulous home, nice cars and all the luxuries imaginable, but you will hate the job, every workday will be long hours and you will rarely feel happiness in the job. By 50 you will begin to suffer serious stress related issues, your family life will be terrible, you will potentially suffer issues with alcohol or other abuse just to cope with the work. Or our second scenario where you find a job you enjoy a lot, it is challenging and sometimes you fail, but generally you do well, you improve. Again, you might have to work long hours, but these are productive hours with results you care about. It is a mid-income job, you are not exactly poor, but your car is a few years old, you have a small property, but you have few luxuries. By 50 you are still in good health and have a happy life generally. The first guy might retire with immense wealth and the second guy may retire with much less, but if we look back on their journey was it really worth all those decades unhappy to achieve the goal of immense wealth? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to do what made them happy for decades, but end up with less?

Before you think I am suggesting you always limit yourself, let me reverse the scenario. Suppose you love exercise, the process of muscle growth. Now you could settle for a job or follow your dream of becoming a bodybuilder. If the training is what makes you happy, then maybe the right goal for you to aim at is to see how far you can go in the bodybuilding field. You may just be a Mr Olympia one day, or if starting businesses is what you love to do, then maybe developing multimillion pound businesses might be the way forward for you. What I am saying is pick a process that you mainly enjoy, then consider how to make a goal from that journey. You are more likely to be happy if you plan things that way.