This Is Just a Checkpoint

There is a wonderful podcast interview with Mike Posner on Theo Von’s podcast talking about his adventure walking across America from 2019.

If you don’t know Mike Posner is the “Cooler Than Me” / “Pill in Ibiza” guy.

The first time I listened I was simply listening to every episode of This Past Weekend. I had heard about Mike Posner walking across America when there were a bunch of news stories about him getting bit by a rattlesnake.

I wasn’t really invested in Mike’s story beforehand, but almost immediately you are struck by how different this conversation is compared to most podcasts. It is one heck of a conversation with a lot of stuff that will make you think about your life.

One that I come back to often is a mantra that Mike took on as he did his walk.

He talked about along the way he’d fixate on the next state. “Just make it to Arkansas, just make it to Arkansas, just make it to Arkansas…” And then he’d make it there and his alarm would go off the next morning and he’d feel empty. Like there was no way to keep going.

Because he built up this finish line in his mind, but then he’d hit it and a part of him would want to stop.

So he took on the practice of celebrating the checkpoints. “This ain’t the end, this is just a checkpoint.”

To get where you want to go in life is a long mission. It requires you to focus on the process and not get obsessed with results. Just do the right thing today, celebrate the checkpoints, but remember that they are just checkpoints, and keep walking.

Whether it is a weight loss goal, and writing goal, or a new business when you focus on doing the right thing daily and hitting the checkpoints eventually you end up in a destination far greater than you could ever imagine when you set out.

Dan Sullivan talks about something similar with the idea of Gap vs. Gain. We have an ideal in our minds, but that is for determining directionality, not comparing your progress against it. Day to day focus on where you came from, not how far away from your ideal you are.

We have true power to choose the life we want to live in. We can live the same day and feel great or terrible. We can walk the same path as someone else and feel like shit when they feel great. We can fixate on end results and always feel insufficient or you can live to celebrate the checkpoints.