08/21/2026
Anyone who knows me knows I despise the phrase, “ It’s all about the Journey”
While I recognize it is meant to be about seeing joy in your current circumstance, and celebrating the small wins – all things I can get behind and do agree on- I, for the most part, think the phrase is kind of a cop out for not reaching your goals.
Someone has a bad round and they go to complain and then they are met with,
“It’s all about the journey”
Respectfully, I don’t think it is.
I don’t think it is about the destination either for that matter.
If everything were about winning, getting the best score, getting on the team, being “the best” on any given day, month, year, ect. That would be a really punch in the gut when those things inevitably didn’t happen at some point along the way. If your self-worth is wrapped up in an outcome with 1,000 factors associated with it, seems like you would be in a constant start of disappointment. The judge might not like you, your horse could slip, the wind knocked over the switch-a-cup, life isn’t fair, so just because you may be “the best” the outcome may not be to your liking.
Some might say it is semantics but bear with me, I think it is about becoming.
Isn’t that the same as “the journey”- No.
If it is about becoming there is an outcome involved but the outcome is getting to live your life as the person who does the thing you want to do. For example: I want to ride and be competitive at -Insert Level- . Let’s take Intermediate B, the two handed flying change level in WE for example.
First you have to learn a flying change, your horse to learn a flying change, you both have to learn how to do them in different combinations, you have to learn the difference between a clean change and the various problems that can happen and how to fix it. You have to improve your timing, straightness, fitness, you have to do it at home, In lessons, and finally at a show.
When you started you didn’t know how to do it, but you reach a point where you do. The goal is not to flounder around (although there is a lot of that) the goal is to get to a point where you are competent in what you are doing and your problems are that of a person doing that level. You become a person whose problems are straightness in the flying changes, not just a person who is trying flying changes. Everything about what you are doing is focused on reaching a certain level of competency. Granted you then begin the process of becoming something else, something better.
But, in my opinion, the journey, so called, is really only worth it if you become something else out of it, I don’t really think it is about the grind itself, it’s about competency at the end. The grind is necessary to get there, and you should enjoy it, but, well, the view from the top of the mountain is better than when you are climbing up, and you feel a lot better about the climb up once you get there and are on your way down. The climb up was necessary, but isn’t the point in and of itself. Instead of just focusing on the climbing, you get to be the person who summited that mountain. Once you do that, you can think about the experience any way you like.
The Goal isn’t to win, but if you become the person you want to be, winning becomes a whole lot easier. And if you don’t win but you rode up to your ability but it just wasn’t good enough that day, well, I never get mad at that. I like to ride in good company and am thankful to be in the game.
Just my two cents, if you like it use it, if you don’t, as Dougie Hall says, “ Don’t worry about it”.
