Paul Oberjuerge: Psychobabbling

Just heard a couple of more Americans roll out this stuff today. Snowboarder Rosie Fletcher reprised the journey/destination thing, and Sasha Cohen (for the umpteenth time) came out with the "process" quote. Bode Miller is big on verbiage of this sort, too.

I understand why athletes parrot these things. Because it's got to be difficult to live with yourself when your athletic career comes down to a few minutes once every four years. If you don't win a medal or don't win a gold, how do you justify the effort and time and expense? By talking about how much you enjoyed just getting there. That's how.

But let's think about this.

If you, regular Joe, had a major project due -- at work, at school, wherever -- and you didn't finish it, or did a bad job, do you think your boss or teacher or prof would let you skate (so to speak) if you reminded him or her, "It's not the result I wanted, but I've learned something: It's the PROCESS that matters most."

Then you'd take your demotion or your F and leave.

Or say you've booked a flight to London and your plane lands in Frankfurt. Are you mollified with the pilot, ready to forgive, feel the desire to give him a big, warm hug ... if he gets on the PA and says, "You know, it's really about the journey ... not the destination."

Heck no. You and everyone else on board would be majorly ticked off.

I know the pressures on Olympic athletes are enormous, because they often have so few big moments in their athletic careers. But I'd like to think more of them have the psychological strength to get up and say, "Man, I stunk it up. I was thinking gold, got bronze, and I'm ticked."

Actually, I can think of one guy who did that, here: Chad Hedrick.

Gotta give you some props, Chad -- for being more concerned about the destination than the journey.