The first step to turning a dream or a running goal into reality is creating the right chemistry between the desire to achieve it and the determination to go after it. So many of our good resolutions stay at the wishful thinking stage because we never give them the real power they need to happen. Like anything else, a dream is built, and the bridge from dream to results always goes through action and a training plan designed for that specific goal.
Paul Waroquier, one of the founders of RunMotion, wrote the book L’Art de Gagner, where he breaks down the mental drivers behind winning, progress, and achieving our endurance sport dreams.
Excerpt from the chapter The Quest.
Every new season is a fresh start, the beginning of a new adventure.
To succeed with a new goal, or at least to give yourself the best possible chance of hitting it, you first need to go in search of four things:
The right energy, the right method, the right mindset, and finally the right goal.
Whether it is a major factor or a small detail, it is essential to take every parameter of a situation into account so you can analyze it, understand it, and ultimately master it. Over time, our motivation changes, and so do the sources we draw our energy from.
With training and with the years, our bodies evolve. The strengths we rely on shift too, which can strongly influence our style, and the strategy we choose on race day. How could you adapt to all these changes without evolving your training methods?
Early in a career, every young talent is ambitious and wants to shake up the established order. Who does not want their moment in the sun? And how many are willing to make every sacrifice to get there?
When you get closer to the end and you feel how temporary everything is, it is often pleasure and calm confidence that keep you moving forward. Every key race is lived to the fullest, every minute on the course carries its own flavor and intensity.
And what about goals? Starting out, reaching the top level, staying there, taking on one last challenge, passing it on to others. Trying to list them all would be pointless, because it is up to each person to find their own, the one that sparks enthusiasm and the hunger to push your limits again and again, in training and in competition.
Every new season is a fresh start. It is probably also the perfect time to ask yourself the right questions before you jump into the fight. Despite what people say, the path to victory is not always the hardest one, the problem is simply that there are so many others.
Every new season is a new beginning,
the start of a new adventure,
a new destiny to build.