On a rainy day, I encountered a distressed driver sitting in the gutter beside his broken-down car. After helping him call roadside assistance, we fell into conversation. His profession? Greyhound trainer.
He explained how greyhounds chase mechanically-controlled white rabbits around racing tracks. The rabbit's speed is always set fractionally faster than the dogs can run. They can never quite catch it.
But occasionally, there's a power outage. The rabbit stops. And a greyhound finally catches its prey.
The discovery? The rabbit is plastic. Unpalatable. Not at all what they'd been chasing.
When this happens, the trainer has to retire the dog. Having caught the rabbit and found it empty, they lose commitment. They race slightly slower afterward. Their career is over.
The Human Parallel
Many people live as if they're greyhounds chasing white rabbits. Solely outcome-driven. Pursuing goals and achievements, believing satisfaction arrives only when they finally reach them.
The promotion. The salary threshold. The relationship milestone. The body shape. The achievement that will finally make everything feel complete.
Many of my clients are the ones who caught their own white rabbits. They reached their goals—and found they tasted like plastic.
The Empty Victory
Success without meaningful values underlying it creates existential crisis. You worked so hard for something, finally got it, and discovered it doesn't provide what you expected.
The problem isn't the goal itself. It's the assumption that reaching it would deliver lasting satisfaction. That the destination would justify the journey.
Are you enjoying the chase, or just waiting for the catch?
A Different Approach
The advice isn't to stop pursuing goals. Goals provide direction and motivation. But the emphasis matters enormously.
Make sure you actually enjoy chasing your rabbit. Find value in the process, not just the outcome. Build your life around pursuits where the journey itself is meaningful, regardless of whether you catch what you're chasing.
Because you might catch it. And if the only satisfaction you expected was in the catching, you'll find yourself sitting in the gutter, wondering what comes next.
A Postscript
The greyhound trainer, before we parted, told me his dog was racing the following week. 600-to-1 odds. Worth a flutter, he said.
The dog won.
Sometimes the rabbit is worth chasing. Just make sure you're enjoying the run.