“Not winning is in fact more powerful than winning,” Professor Monica Wadhwa argues. Her research reveals that people tend to be most energized and motivated not when they win but when they almost win. Falling just short of one’s ambitions tends to give people the motivation to keep growing and striving. Easy victories, on the other hand, tend to cripple energy and motivation.

Wadhwa’s perspective gives fresh insight into Paul’s analogy used in two passages that compare following Christ to running a race: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 and Philippians 3:12-14. In both instances, Paul emphasizes that believers ought to give their pursuit of Christ and the gospel their all, “straining toward what is ahead” (Philippians 3:13) and running “in such a way as to get the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:24).

The paradoxical truth is that what we’re striving for—faithfully sharing the gospel (v. 23) and knowing Christ (Philippians 3:8)—aren’t things we can ever say we’ve achieved. We’ll always fall short. We’ll never be able to say we’ve “already arrived” (v. 12).

But that’s okay—because it’s the experience of drawing ever closer to Christ that matters. It’s only His strength that empowers and motivates us to pour our whole hearts into pursuing Him—the one who will one day carry us to victory.