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Motivation Quote by Carlos Alcaraz

"I always say it’s about the journey, not the destination"

About this Quote

For an elite athlete, “it’s about the journey, not the destination” isn’t a greeting-card slogan so much as a survival strategy. Carlos Alcaraz is speaking from inside a sport that turns teenagers into brands and every tournament into a referendum on greatness. In that environment, the “destination” is a mirage: you win a Slam, the question becomes whether you can win the next one; you reach No. 1, the story immediately shifts to whether you can defend it. The finish line keeps moving because the business of modern tennis requires a perpetual present tense.

Alcaraz’s phrasing performs a kind of emotional judo. By privileging “journey,” he’s quietly resisting the sport’s most corrosive demand: that results are the only proof of legitimacy. The subtext is mental hygiene. Process talk is how players build consistency under scrutiny, but it’s also how they reclaim authorship of their own careers when everyone else is busy writing plotlines for them.

There’s another layer, too: this is charisma with guardrails. Alcaraz is marketed as exuberant, fearless, almost boyishly joyful. The quote reinforces that persona while signaling maturity to sponsors and press: he’s ambitious, but not brittle; hungry, but not entitled. In a culture that rewards both winning and seeming psychologically “healthy” while you do it, the journey becomes a public-facing ethic. It’s not rejecting trophies; it’s refusing to let trophies be the only language his career is allowed to speak.

Quote Details

TopicJourney
SourceATP Tour interview (player quotes used in media coverage around 2022–2023)
CiteCite this Quote

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Alcaraz, Carlos. (n.d.). I always say it’s about the journey, not the destination. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-always-say-its-about-the-journey-not-the-184368/

Chicago Style
Alcaraz, Carlos. "I always say it’s about the journey, not the destination." FixQuotes. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-always-say-its-about-the-journey-not-the-184368/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I always say it’s about the journey, not the destination." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-always-say-its-about-the-journey-not-the-184368/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.

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Carlos Alcaraz on Journey Over Destination: A Winning Mindset
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About the Author

Carlos Alcaraz

Carlos Alcaraz (born May 5, 2003) is a Athlete from Spain.

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