What are you training for?

What are you training for?

If you’re an athlete, you’ve probably gotten that question from time to time. Maybe you’ve even asked that question yourself.

Most of the time the answers look like this—a game, competition, race, performance.

Some type of upcoming event. 

Watch the first 20 seconds of this to see this question through a different lens:

You watched the whole thing, huh?

I did too.

“I’m not training for a race. I’m training for life.”

David Goggins

When I saw this earlier this week, it hit.

This entire project—Keep Asking. 

There is no destination. 

This is about continually training my mind so that when a moment strikes unexpectedly and challenges me by asking, “are you ready,” I can say, I’ve been training for this. I have the right questions I can call on to help me navigate the problem. I have questions to help me remain composed. And most importantly, I’ve been training with these questions for years so that they are the default response.

Does the athlete win every event they train for?

Only if you’re Michael Phelps.

But for the rest of us, training doesn’t guarantee victory.

The same is true of this process I’m in right now. The last two years of training myself to ask more and better questions doesn’t mean I handle every situation exactly as I know I should.

But man, there is a quiet confidence growing that calms me during the unexpected challenges. 

So, what are you training for?