True Desire is Never Borrowed

A few weeks ago, I started “word of the week” with one of my coaching clients, Peter. Peter, like many of my clients, wants to get to Kona and the Ironman World Championship.  He wants to take the more difficult path and qualify by finishing near the top of his age group in another 140.5-mile Ironman race.  As his triathlon coach, I’m going to help him get there.

The idea behind “word of the week” is for me to come up with a word that reflects a theme of where we are in Peter’s journey to Kona.  This week’s word is “desire.”

A month after setting a PR at Ironman Arizona in 2009, Peter tore his hamstring in late December, which, coupled with holiday travel and work travel, kept him from doing much of anything for about a month except for swim with a pull buoy tucked between his legs a few days week.  He’s made tremendous progress since then as he’s now able to ride on the trainer, aqua jog and do some elliptical training.  Still, no running.  Unfortunately, he’s lost fitness and gained some undesirable weight, pull him further away from his goal than anytime in the last four years.

Peter has two powerful traits that will get him to Kona in spite of the odds: (1) a positive attitude and (2) desire.

Both are equally important.

Here’s what W. Timothy Galley has to say about desire in his book, The Inner Game of Work:

“Desire wants what it wants. Desire is a feeling that can produce a picture or a vision of what it wants. It may or may not be similar to what other people want, but true desire is never borrowed from anyone else. So the hardest thing about getting a clear picture of your direction is to be able to distinguish your picture from that of the many pictures that are painted by other people.”

At their essence, our individual true desires are unique to each of us, although I think it’s easy to get caught up in what other people are doing and pursuing.  I know I’ve been guilty of doing things because “I’m supposed to…” or “I should….” or “This is what I think want…” and not doing the things that I truly, in my heart of hearts, desire.  I have some excellent real life examples including failed relationships and unhappy job experiences in my autobiographical book: Full Time and Sub-Nine: Fitting Iron Distance Training into Every Day Life.

In regards to desire and Kona, I think there are two types of athletes:

1. those who like the “idea” of going to Kona, but often fall short on the commitment and discipline to get there and
2. those that truly desire to do the work and gain the knowledge to get there.

I’ll place my bets on Peter (with me as his coach of course!) in reaching Kona one day. Truthfully, I have the easier job, but I know he has the true desire and patience to get there so I have faith in him.

Live strongly and boldly!

David

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David B. Glover
Author of Full Time and Sub-Nine: Fitting Iron Distance Training into Every Day Life
Triathlon Coach, Athlete and Writer
Web: enduranceworks.net

© 2010 David B. Glover