Chapter 318

The virtue lies in the struggle, not in the prize." ~ Richard Monckton Milnes

It doesn’t feel this way. We are told and taught to be goal oriented from our first memories. No one says anything about the struggle. Our focus is always out there in front on getting that prize. Most are laser focused on getting to . . . that target, that bullseye, that wish, that goal, that pursuit . . . and you should be. Yes just like that. The goal is, well, the goal. Getting confused here by the wonderful word-smithing, is not something we want to do. So don’t be confused, the goal is still the goal, the prize is still the prize.

But the goal or the prize is not the only value in the process. The struggle to reach that goal or prize is itself a goldmine of potential. And mostly potential benefit. If this is actually so, and I am arguing that it is for I have not seen nor experienced anything to the contrary, then we need to stop cheating our processes! This is where the big changes and real development occur. “Virtue” is what throws you off here. That is such a 19th century word and Milnes was a 19th century dude, but the idea at the core is solid. The real goodness, the great value, the part most beneficial, the special development piece is in the process, the fight, the striving, the effort, the sacrifices, the discipline, the rigor, the grit that you use and develop to get to the prize.

It took me five years to get my doctorate - or 44 years if you really count it. Most people looking in from the outside would say five years. But I know that it took so much more than those research years, a lifetime of difference.