Mastering the Process vs Fixating on the End Result

We climbed to the top of Whitecap Mountain on our last day in ME. It was a three hour trail that was steep, rocky, and complicated at times with streams that doubled as trails, tiny wooden bridges, and altitude changes.

On our way up we saw a man and his small Aussie Shepherd run up and down the mountain twice. Light as a feather he and his dog jogged past us four times as we stumbled our way up to the summit.

I thought about him and his dog a lot on the way down.

I can’t imagine one day he just decided to run up this mountain and was immediately able to do it effortlessly and with such skill.

I’m sure it started as an idea that grew into a passion or a ritual over time with consistency and practice. Maybe the first time he tried he didn’t get all the way up the mountain. Maybe he stumbled and struggled like us.

But he kept doing it, despite how hard it was, he pushed through the discomfort and made it a priority to climb this mountain.

In the end he wasn’t climbing the mountain for the same reason we were. We wanted to see the top, we cared a lot about the destination and were willing to struggle through the climb just for that.

He wasn’t there for the views, he was there to refine the process. He was there because of what the journey up that mountain gave him mentally and physically.

There are a lot of things in our lives that can either be a messy rush to accomplish or a meticulous refinement of the process to achieve a goal. The training we choose to do with our dogs can fit into these categories and I definitely prefer to meticulously refine. In my experience the long term results are far more stable than those of a quick fix. 

What path do you find yourself choosing with your dogs? Do you enjoy mastering a process or are you just eager to get to the end result?