The rule of thirds: the secret for a journey of enduring success (2024)

What's the secret to success? This is a question that has been asked throughout history.

For a long time, I believed that only hard work was essential to success. You cannot achieve success without putting in the hard work: the harder you work, the more likely you are to achieve your dreams. Little did I know that would turn out to be more the recipe for ephemeral contentment - followed by painful burnout - than enduring happiness.

Later in life, I finally realized it's all about the journey, not the destination: success is a path made by self-reliance and mental health, but also by embracing pain and nurturing your self-confidence. In her memoir Bravey, olympic runner and an award-winning actor and writer Alexi Pappasshares what she learned through her wonderful journey to achieve her dreams by befriending pain; one lesson is particularly inspiring: the rule of thirds.

When she was facing a difficult training period before the Rio Olympics, she became frustrated, felt lost and frightened, and felt she was not able to hit her pace on the track in spite of her best efforts.Ian Dobson, her coach and former Olympian himself, explained that her workout was not a problembecause it was aligned with the Rule of Thirds: when you are dreaming and chasing for a big goal or something particularly hard, he continued, you are supposed to feel good a third of the time, feel OK a third of the time, and feel crappy third of the time.He further explained that if the ratio is roughly in that range, it means that you are doing just fine. If you feel bad all the time it's a sign you're fatiguing; feeling good all the time means you're not working hard enough; feeling just always just OK is the worst sign, as it suggests you're not engaged properly with what you do.

The Rule of Thirds is a great way to embrace obstacles with optimism, convert the severest and darkest moments as the breakthroughs, and accept what hurts - emotionally and physically. It’s often a whole lot of nothing, and then a big leap forward. It’s also a reminder that finding the right balance in pushing too hard vs. not enough is tough.

If you're constantly feeling good about your progress towards a goal, you might want to step up closer to your edge. If you are having a lot of bad days, it might be a sign of burnout approaching and a signal to turn it down a notch. But most importantly,the rule of thirds shifts our perspective on the OK days, whether that is in a relationship, a job, or chasing an athletic dream: those okay days aren’t something to shrug off, but part of the process of growth; by shifting this mindset, we can learn to love them too.

True progress is never linear, enduring success is never instantaneous. And it better not be, as Pappas puts it: "good thing I didn't accomplish all my goals yet, because then what would I do tomorrow? "

DisclaimerWhat's above representsmy personal viewsand not the opinion or policy of my employers or any other company, organization or individual I can be associated with.The facts expressed here belong to everybody, the quoted sections, stetements, and imagery belong to their respective authors, the opinions only to me: the distinction is yours to draw...