Originally Posted by globecanvas

I think most people will read gsteinb's comments and assume he is accusing people of being chocolate cake wanters just like his mom's friends, looking for a magic solution to meet their goals without any willingness to do hard work. I don't think that is the theme here, but I also don't think that's his point, it's more of an parable to support his point.

I see the point more as, if your goal is get a specific type of result, it's the wrong goal. The goal has to be the process itself.

I think that's a useful insight, but it's also important to acknowledge that there are degrees of everything. Nobody is here because they decided they wanted to win a bike race, then started trying to figure out how. People are here because they are motivated to ride their bikes hard, and motivated by competition. Both of those motivations are about the process, whether the good feeling of being strong or the thrill and heightened experience of a race. Frustration about "results" can obscure those basic motivations, but it was those motivations, and not the desire to get a specific result, that brought each of us into racing in the first place.