Life is a journey, not a destination

This crazy rollercoaster ride we call life is unequivocally, as Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, a journey, not a destination.

Indeed, it's not so much about where we end up as it is how we got there.

How many times have you gone on road trips, only to reflect more fondly on the time spent making your way there -- cracking jokes with friends, singing songs with the family, exploring the outdoors -- than the destination in question?

We have a tendency to focus so hard on the end goal that we seldom stop to appreciate the incremental steps that get us there.

For example, we or someone we know likely wishes to lose weight. It can be easy to become fixed on losing, say, 50 pounds as soon as possible.

But as sweet as achieving that goal will be, chances are we will come to miss the feeling of working toward their target. The elation that comes from losing five pounds and looking forward to doubling that number.

The same goes for college students who assert that graduation can't come soon enough, but once it does, they end up wishing they had tried harder to make the most of their time in the Ivory Tower.

Or how about people who hook up with someone in hopes of sprinting to the altar, neglecting to savor the relationship in small doses?

Put another way, many people spend their life living in the future rather than in the present, and as I've pointed out in various posts, happiness lies in the here and now.

We live for Fridays, for graduation, for retirement. But why not just live for today?

We must remind ourselves that just because we haven't yet met a goal doesn't mean we can't appreciate the road we've traveled.

As it turns out, the many journeys we've embarked on throughout our lives have gotten us to where we are today. We've worked hard, cultivated relationships, and made plenty of sacrifices along the way.

Success does not come without our fair share of challenges. Life itself is a long journey -- with arduous problems to solve and tough lessons to learn. Still, it is through hardship that we emerge stronger and happier. Those rough spots become memories we reflect on later, realizing they played a pivotal part in our growth.

If one makes life all about the destination, he or she is not living it to the max. Instead, they should seize each day as it comes, never taking for granted trails we have blazed -- however long, however mundane, however painful -- to get there.

Enjoy the ride!

Comments

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