Everyone Wants the Victory Lap—No One Wants to Run the Race

Why Most People Want the Outcome, Not the Process

We live in a culture obsessed with results. We idolize the bestselling author, the viral content creator, the overnight millionaire. We repost their highlight reels, study their morning routines, quote their TED Talks. But here’s the uncomfortable truth no one likes to admit:

Most people don’t want to be part of the process. They just want to be part of the outcome.

They want the applause, not the rehearsal. The diploma, not the late nights in the library. The dream body, not the early morning workouts and food prep. They want the title without the grind, the transformation without the sweat. In short, everyone wants the victory lap, but no one wants to run the race.

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The Instagram Illusion

Social media has supercharged this disconnect. We scroll through filtered images of success: the book launch party, the luxury vacation, the perfectly lit kitchen of the startup founder. What we don’t see is the process—the hundred rejected drafts, the months of self-doubt, the Saturday nights spent coding instead of partying.

We confuse visibility with value. If we can’t see the struggle, we assume it wasn’t there. And so we chase what’s shiny, easy, and instant—never realizing that what looks effortless is almost always the product of invisible, persistent, sometimes painful work.

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Why the Process Matters

Here’s the thing about the process: it’s where the growth happens.

The process is where you find out who you are, not just what you can achieve. It teaches you resilience, humility, discipline. It forces you to get comfortable with failure and develop the endurance to keep showing up, even when no one’s watching.

More importantly, the process changes you. You become the kind of person who can handle the outcome. Without the process, the success feels hollow—or worse, it collapses under its own weight because you’re not ready for it.

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Shortcuts Aren’t Solutions

It’s tempting to look for hacks, to believe there’s a faster, easier, smarter way to get what you want. Sometimes, there is. But those shortcuts often cut out the very experiences that make the journey worthwhile.

Want to build a business? You’ll need to learn to navigate failure, uncertainty, and imposter syndrome. Want to write a novel? Get ready to wrestle with procrastination, creative blocks, and the fear of not being good enough. Want a strong relationship? That’s not built on a perfect vacation photo—it’s forged in hard conversations and everyday effort.

In other words, if you skip the process, you cheat yourself out of the transformation.

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Falling in Love with the Work

The real shift happens when you stop chasing the outcome and start falling in love with the work.

That’s when things change. When the early mornings become sacred. When you start to crave the challenge because you know it’s shaping you. When you measure success not by accolades but by consistency. When the process becomes not just the path to the goal—but the goal itself.

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The Bottom Line

There’s nothing wrong with wanting success. But if you’re not willing to participate in the process—if you’re not willing to show up when it’s inconvenient, exhausting, or scary—then you don’t really want the outcome. You just want the image of having it.

And that’s not the same thing.

In a world full of people trying to skip to the good part, be someone who sticks around for the hard part.

That’s where the real magic lives.

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Charles Faint served over 27 years in the US Army, which included seven combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with various Special Operations Forces units and two stints as an instructor at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He also completed operational tours in Egypt, the Philippines, and the Republic of Korea and earned a Doctor of Business Administration from Temple University as well as a Master of Arts in International Relations from Yale University. He is the owner of The Havok Journal, and the views expressed herein are his own and do not reflect those of the US Government or any other person or entity.