Competing on Purpose with Rich Jones

People usually mean it kindly. But sometimes those four words ask you to ignore what you know about what you're capable of. In this episode, Rich opens his World Masters Championships notebook — a long jump that missed the final, a triple jump final where the goal was met but the execution wasn't — and names the tension every competitor knows: the outcome was worth celebrating, and the performance wasn't good enough. Both things are true. This isn't really an episode about track. It's about the two scoreboards we all live with: the one that measures what happened, and the one that measures what we're capable of. 

Are you chasing your current goals out of present purpose, or are you secretly trying to avenge a ghost from years ago? Rich breaks down the trap of "score settling" in athletics and career leadership, and reveals why letting go of past validation is the ultimate key to peak performance.

And the beginning of a new era. 

What do a 30-minute email, a messy office, and a Q1 check-in have in common? The same pattern. And it's been showing up everywhere. This episode is about finally seeing it and what I'm doing in Q2 to address it.

Rich had a frustrating long jump competition at his fifth U.S. Indoor Masters Track & Field Championships, but it led to a surprising insight about why all his hard work wasn't showing up when it counted. The lesson goes way beyond track. Visit tmwshow.com for more.