After my race on Labor Day, I decided I wanted to find another race.

Nothing particularly profound. I had finished one race and was already thinking about the next one.

So I started looking around for another 5K.

That’s when I stumbled across a race called The Best Race.

The name caught my attention.

It was a National Chocolate Lovers Day 5K—which, honestly, sounded like a pretty good combination. A 5K and chocolate? I’m in.

But the more I thought about the name, the more it started to stick with me.

The Best Race.

What does that actually mean?

And more importantly:

What does “the best” mean to me?

I’ve always been competitive. I like to win. I like to challenge myself. I like having something in front of me that seems difficult and wondering if I can accomplish it.

But I’ve also started thinking about the other side of that.

There are people who don’t seem to feel that same need to constantly push themselves. They want to enjoy the moment. They don’t need everything to be a competition. They aren’t always thinking about the next accomplishment or how they can improve.

They’re simply enjoying where they are.

So what type of person are you?

Are you the person who always wants to win?

Are you the person who would rather enjoy the moment?

Or are you somewhere in between?

How do we measure the best?

In a race, that’s easy.

There’s a finish line.

There’s a clock.

There’s a winner.

But life doesn’t come with a stopwatch.

How do you measure being the best parent? The best friend? The best leader? The best version of yourself?

Is there a metric?

Is it accomplishments? Money? Recognition? Success?

Or is it something much more personal?

Maybe it’s simply the feeling that you gave everything you had.

And that led me to another question.

What gives us that uneasy feeling when we don’t feel like we’ve reached our potential?

You can accomplish a lot and still feel like you haven’t made it.

You can look successful from the outside and still have a nagging feeling inside that says:

I could have done more.

I could have been better.

I’m not where I thought I would be.

Maybe that feeling is ambition.

Maybe it’s the desire to fulfill our potential.

But maybe it’s also comparison. Ego. Expectations. The pressure we’ve put on ourselves to constantly be better than we were yesterday.

And here’s the question I keep coming back to:

How do we know what our potential actually is?

Who decides?

And if we never define what “the best” means, how could we ever know when we’ve achieved it?

Maybe there’s another way to look at it

I’ve been thinking a lot about The Here and Now Traveler and what that idea really means to me.

It’s about slowing down.

It’s about being present.

It’s about allowing yourself to actually experience your life instead of constantly rushing through it on the way to the next thing.

And maybe that’s where my definition of “the best” starts to take shape.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to be better.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to win.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with pushing yourself to discover what you’re capable of.

But I do think there’s a point where the pursuit of being the best can become too much.

If becoming the best means you’re always thinking about the next achievement, you’re missing what’s happening right now.

If winning becomes more important than the experience itself, you’ve lost something.

If the pressure to perform keeps you from enjoying the people you’re with, the places you’re in, and the life you’re living, then maybe you’ve gone too far.

Because what’s the point of becoming the best if you’re too busy chasing it to actually enjoy your life?

Maybe being the best isn’t about winning every race.

Maybe it’s not even about reaching some imaginary version of our ultimate potential.

Maybe it’s about finding the balance between pushing yourself and being present.

Between ambition and contentment.

Between the race and the moment.

That’s what I didn’t expect to get from finding another 5K.

I was just looking for another race.

Instead, The Best Race made me start questioning the race I’ve been running all along.

And maybe that’s what being a Here and Now Traveler is really about.

Not giving up the pursuit.

Not settling.

Not deciding that ambition is bad.

But remembering to slow down long enough to experience the journey.

Because there will always be another race.

Another goal.

Another opportunity to get better.

Another finish line.

But this moment only happens once.

So, how would you define “the best”?

What does it mean to you?

Is it something that can be measured?

Is it something you feel?

Is it winning?

Is it reaching your potential?

Or is it being able to look around at your life, wherever you happen to be, and actually experience it?

For me, I think the best is becoming the best version of myself without missing the life I’m living along the way.

And maybe that’s the best race worth running.