Beyond the Finish Line: What the Five Rings Have Taught Me About Learning, Growth and Change

By Theresa Zabell

When I was invited to speak at the International House Directors’ Conference, I was particularly interested in one of the questions that seemed to run through many of the sessions and discussions.

As artificial intelligence transforms the way we work, communicate and learn, what should we do with the time and opportunities it creates?

It is an important question, but it is not entirely new.

Throughout history, every significant change has forced people to rethink not only how they work, but also why they do what they do. Technology may change the tools we use, but it does not change the human challenges that sit beneath them: finding direction, overcoming setbacks, learning from others, and adapting to uncertainty.

Although my own career has been very different from that of most readers of this journal, I have often found that the lessons I learned through sport have surprising relevance far beyond competition.

People usually associate Olympic athletes with medals and victories. Yet when I look back on my sporting career, the moments that shaped me most were not the moments when everything went according to plan. They were the moments when I had to learn, adapt and grow.

Over time, I found myself returning to a symbol that everyone recognises: the Olympic Rings.

For most people, the rings represent sport. For me, they became a way of understanding the process of growth and development that all of us experience throughout our lives.

The first ring is the dream.

Every journey begins with the ability to imagine something that does not yet exist. Whether we are learning a language, starting a new project, changing careers or pursuing an Olympic medal, progress begins when we can see a possibility beyond our current reality.

Dreams are important because they provide direction. However, dreams alone are not enough. At some point they need to be transformed into goals. One of the lessons I learned very early in life was that a dream becomes more powerful when it is given a date, because that is the moment it begins to demand action.

The second ring is adversity.

We often celebrate success, but learning is rarely a straight line. Every meaningful goal comes with moments of frustration, uncertainty, and failure.

As a sailor, I experienced many setbacks. Some were the result of my own mistakes. Others were circumstances beyond my control. At the time, these moments felt like obstacles. Looking back, they were often the moments of greatest growth.

Failure has a way of revealing what success can sometimes hide. It forces us to reflect, adjust and develop new capabilities. More importantly, it reminds us that progress is not measured by the absence of mistakes, but by our willingness to keep learning from them.

The third ring is teamwork.

One of the great myths of achievement is that success is an individual endeavour. In reality, very little is accomplished alone.

Behind every athlete stands a team of coaches, training partners, family members and mentors. The same is true in education. Behind every successful learner stands a teacher who inspired confidence, a colleague who shared ideas or a community that created the conditions for growth.

Learning has always been a social process. Long before artificial intelligence, digital platforms or online classrooms existed, people learned through interaction, collaboration and shared experience.

Technology may change how we connect, but it does not replace the importance of human relationships.

The fourth ring is strategy.

Dreams provide direction and adversity builds resilience, but neither guarantees progress. Progress requires a plan.

One of the reasons large goals can feel overwhelming is that we tend to focus on the destination rather than the process. In sport, we learn very quickly that success is built through small, consistent actions repeated over time.
The same principle applies to learning.

A language is not learned in a day. Expertise is not developed in a week. Meaningful change rarely happens through dramatic breakthroughs. More often, it emerges from small decisions repeated consistently.

Strategy is what allows us to transform aspiration into action.

The fifth ring is opportunity.

People often describe success as luck. Yet the older I become, the more I believe that what we call luck is usually the meeting point between preparation and opportunity.

Opportunities appear unexpectedly, but our ability to recognise and take advantage of them depends on the work we have already done.

As educators know better than most, preparation does not guarantee success. However, it dramatically increases the chances that when opportunities arise, we are ready for them.

Taken together, these five rings have become much more than a sporting symbol for me. They represent a way of thinking about growth, learning and change.

What makes them particularly relevant today is that we are all navigating a period of extraordinary transformation.
Artificial intelligence is already changing many aspects of education and professional life. Some tasks are becoming easier, faster, and more efficient. New possibilities are emerging almost daily.

Yet the qualities that will help us navigate this future remain profoundly human.

We still need dreams to provide direction.

We still need resilience when challenges arise.

We still need other people to support and challenge us.

We still need strategy to turn ideas into action.

And we still need preparation if we want to recognise opportunity when it appears.

Technology can accelerate many things, but it cannot tell us what matters most. It cannot define our purpose, our values or the impact we want to have on the world around us.

Those decisions remain ours.

At the end of my presentation, I invited the audience to reflect on a simple question:

What are your five rings?

In other words, what are the forces that sustain you when circumstances change?

The answer will be different for each of us. Yet taking the time to ask the question may be more important than ever.

Because success is not ultimately defined by a finish line, a medal or a particular achievement.

It is defined by who we become in the process of pursuing it.

And that journey of learning, adaptation and growth is one that never truly ends.

Biography