Endurance is something that’s never been in my toolbox. When I try to run more than two miles at a time, my brain fights me, telling me to give up. When I was in high school and college and didn’t immediately understand a course or subject, I often stopped trying. And when I think about the things it’s going to take to get parts of my life heading in the direction I want them heading in, I come up with dozens of excuses of why now is not the time to take the first steps.

I won’t go so far as to calling it laziness — I like working hard. I just want immediate results to follow that hard work. I guess it’s more impatience than anything. Hell, impatience is probably the root of so many of my frustrations.

A former coworker of my named Dan quit his job a while back to pursue what he’s calling ‘The Dan Plan.’ Under the theory that 10,000 hours of deliberate practice of any particular craft or trade can make you an expert of that craft or trade, Dan is aiming to go from novice golfer to professional golfer. More details on his plan here.

Those 10,000 hours that Dan’s investing in becoming a professional golfer will take six years of his life. I’m sure so many of you had the same first question that I had — how the hell is he funding this adventure? Dan says he’s always been one to save his money and had been saving up to take some time off of work to travel. Once he had a well-padded travel fund, he realized the journey he wanted to take was not an external one but an internal one.

Here’s where my mind explodes at two different levels. Six years of your life to get where you’re trying to be? Six years of deliberately practicing the same thing over and over, of working through daily frustrations? Not to mention he’s managed to save enough money to stay mostly afloat during this time (though he is accepting donations, if you’re so inclined). That’s two massive displays of endurance right there.

It’s a lesson I’m constantly needing to re-learn and a pep talk I’m always needing to hear — life is a journey, and it’s the journey not the end results that counts. The priest at my church spoke of journeys recently, and how the word’s Latin roots mean ‘a day’s work.’ So life is a journey, and that means work.

Another note from Dan:

But the plan isn’t really about golf: through this process, Dan hopes to prove to himself and others that it’s never too late to start a new pursuit in life.

With those words ringing in my ears — well eyes, I suppose — and with the roots of the word journey stuck in my brain, I’m getting to work on some new pursuits. They’re pursuits that I hope make me happy through the work I invest in them. Maybe they’ll lead to greater things after hours and hours of deliberate practice. But for now, I just want to enjoy the work.