The Pursuit Is Better Than The Prize

The Arrival We Think We Want

There are moments in life where we become obsessed with arriving. Getting the promotion. Buying the house. Winning the title. Starting the business. Finding the relationship. Making the first million.

We convince ourselves that happiness is waiting just beyond the next milestone.

"If I can just get there..."

Lately I've caught myself doing exactly that.

I've been building Strong Dogs for years. Every week I film videos, write blogs, record podcasts, answer questions, and spend hours trying to create something meaningful. If I'm honest, there are days I just want the payoff.

I want the business to explode. I want to wake up and only work on Strong Dogs. I want everything I've been working toward to finally arrive.

But then I started asking myself a different question.

What if arriving isn't actually the best part?

The Goalpost Always Moves

Think back to something you've wanted for years. Maybe it was graduating college. Landing a job. Buying your first home. Getting married. Getting your first dog. How long did the excitement last? A week? A month?

Then life became normal again. The goalpost moved. That's human nature. We spend years chasing something. We finally achieve it. We celebrate.

Then almost immediately our attention shifts to the next mountain. The problem isn't ambition. The problem is believing that fulfillment lives at the summit. It doesn't. Life isn’t fulfilling by external items. Does it make life easier, sure, but tangible collectables wont make you happy. Only internal perspective can.

Fulfillment lives on the climb.

Dogs Understand Something We Forget

Arya doesn't know she's training for IGP. She has no idea what a BH title is. She doesn't know we're preparing for trials months from now.

She knows today's session. Today's repetition. Today's correction. Today's reward.

That's it.

She isn't worried about tomorrow's score. She's engaged in today's work.

Sometimes I think dogs are happier than we are because they don't spend their lives wishing they were somewhere else.

They're fully committed to the moment they're in. That's something I envy.

Slow Progress Is a Gift

People love overnight success. I used to think I wanted it too. Now I'm not so sure. Overnight success creates overnight expectations.

Imagine your first YouTube video gets one million views.

Amazing. Until your next video gets 200,000. Objectively, that's incredible.

Emotionally? It feels like failure.

Nothing changed except the expectation. The same thing happens everywhere. A business grows. Now growth becomes expected. A dog earns a title. Now the next title feels mandatory. You buy your dream house. Soon you're thinking about renovations or a bigger one.

The accomplishment becomes the new baseline. That's why slow progress might actually be the better path. It gives you time to become the person capable of handling the next level.

Dog Training Doesn't Skip Steps

Dog training taught me this long before business ever did. You don't teach a perfect heel in one session. You build it.

Five good steps. Then ten. Then twenty. You add distractions. You increase duration. You challenge the dog just enough to succeed. The goal isn't to rush the process. The goal is to build confidence one repetition at a time. The same is true for people.

Character develops gradually. Confidence develops gradually. Businesses develop gradually. Relationships develop gradually. Most things worth having refuse to be rushed.

The Pursuit Changes You

I've realized something over the last few years. Strong Dogs isn't just teaching me how to train dogs.

It's teaching me patience.

It's teaching me resilience.

It's teaching me discipline.

It's teaching me how to continue showing up when there isn't immediate evidence that it's working.

Ironically...

Those lessons are probably more valuable than the success I've been chasing. Because success can disappear. The person you become while pursuing it stays with you.

Stop Waiting to Be Happy

If you only allow yourself to enjoy life once you've arrived... You'll spend your entire life postponing happiness.

There will always be another goal. Another challenge. Another mountain.

Instead of asking,

"When will I arrive?"

Start asking,

"Am I still climbing?"

Because I'd rather be the person making steady progress than the person standing at the top wondering where to go next.

The summit lasts a moment. The climb becomes your life.

And maybe that's the point.

Keep Training,

Steven Jankovic
Strong Dogs