Back when I was a mountaineer and rock climber, and looking for funny but true sayings to help guide me in moments of need…moments of high risk…moments of trying to explain to other people why the hell was I doing these crazy death defying acts of adventure.

I came up with a list of rules and laws…principles that I found helpful. Some of these are I think helpful just in general, and once in a while I’ll share one here on the Wise Athletes podcast.

Here’s the second one, which I should have mentioned first as it is central to the Wise Athletes idea:

Don’t confuse measurements of what is commonly or conveniently called ‘success’ such as race wins, racing category upgrades, miles run or ridden, Strava Achievements, feet skied, PRs, 14ers climbed, etc. with your true goals, which should be something like: happiness, health, full & long life. The former are just metrics, which are useful for easy tracking of progress, and perhaps for motivation. But don’t forget what you really want from your athletic endeavors. It is easy to mistakingly substitute one for the other when you aren’t paying attention.

I call this the Error of the False Proxy:

Bonus: Error of the False Proxy