There’s “No Finish Line”, one of my mentor’s advices.
What does “no finish line” really means?
The story follows an entrepreneur I admired. When he proposed to his girlfriend, her father was initially unyielding, aware that the entrepreneur had little to his name.
Yet, he assured her father, “I promise to take care of her.” The tale concludes with the entrepreneur marrying his girlfriend, but what remained unseen by the public was that he received her stepfather’s blessing because the stepfather recognized something in him that most did not.
To help you understand the situation, his girlfriend’s dad grew up in a village in Cyrprus with only 200 people. He moved out from the village, work in a shipping industry before becoming the CEO.
He knew how it felt growing up in situation where you don’t know where to find your next food. He knew how it felt to sleep with an empty stomach.
But he knew too how to move forward, promised himself to get out of the cycle. That what mattered most.
But it doesn’t end there. Getting out of the village is one goal. Rising to the ranks in the company is series of many goals. There’s no finish line.
My dad grew up in the Philippines were there’s no running water. I hate going to my grandparent’s place for vacation because there’s no electricity and running water.
I have to walk quarter of a mile in order for me to get into a well that nobody owns, get some water and then use for washing the dishes to shower.
To look back, it took a while for the generational line to get out of that situation.
I remember telling my kid, when we were driving to a basketball practice, telling him that my grandpa on the father side, don’t know how to read.
“What did he do?” he asked.
“He was a farmer”.
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Why am I telling you this story? Because when my son said he was about to quit basketball because he doesn’t think he’ll get into varsity, instead of telling him the usual advice of “Don’t ever give up”, I told him my grandparent’s story.
My grandparent’s may never finished grade school (and not able to read), they were on a mission to let my dad go to school.
I told my kid, if they quit and never worked hard to let his kids go to school (My dad has to walk several miles for him to go to school), I said to him, I don’t think we will be where we are.
“You came a long way”, I told my kid. “You are in the U.S., driving to a basketball practice.”
There was a long pause.
I told my son; you came so far. But we’re not done yet, cause there’s no finish line.
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My kids have friends who played soccer and basketball, and one common denominator that these kids quit, is that once they encounter obstacles — their playing time is lessen, their coach hates them, or whatever reason, they quit.
But when I understood the concept of ‘There’s no Finish Line’ as explained to me by one of my mentors, it slowly made sense.
What does it mean?
No Finish Line in Life
Observing individuals at the pinnacle of their fields, one might assume they ascended to the top effortlessly and without hindrances.
The reality is that individuals at the pinnacle have faced every challenge imaginable, yet they persist. Moreover, upon reaching their objectives, they don’t just stop, have a beer, and call it a day.
What they do is celebrate for achieving the goal, and then work on the next goal.
That’s what “there’s no finish line means”. That means achievers are hungry for more once the cross the line and look for another “finish line”.
No Finish Line in weight loss
Part of my adventure is on weight loss. It took me years to understand the concept.
I recall diligently tracking calories with a purchased app for nearly a year. It was quite successful; I lost almost 20 pounds.
When summer came, there were backyard barbecues that I attended that throw off my routine.
In a few weeks, I gained five lbs. Frustrated, I threw up the towel and then never went back to my routine.
Gradually, the weight returned, and before I realized it, I had come full circle to my starting point.
Now tell me, how many of you have done this, lost 50 lbs but gained 10 lbs five times?
What gives? That is because we always think that’s there’s a finish line, a number that once you achieve, you stop. The reality is that there’s no finish line. Just like brushing your teeth, you don’t brush your teeth and your set for life.
It doesn’t work that way.
There’s no finish line.
You don’t go to the gym, pump some iron and your set for life. Health is a continues process. It never ends. There’s no finish line.
And this is what I learned throughout my journey too: you gain weight, but that doesn’t mean you give up. It happens. What you do is recalibrate, restart and continue with the journey.
There’s no finish line. If you understand that, the journey is way so much better.
