"Life is what happens to you, while you are busy making other plans."
--"Beautiful Boy," John Lennon
Goals, targets, destinations, deadlines - we are all surrounded by these words.
How often are our bodies in present times but our minds are moving into the future?
We seem to be chasing the end result while convincing ourselves that once we achieve the goal we will be happier and more fulfilled in our lives. Happiness seems to be this unreachable, future thing as the end has become more important than the means.
We focus so much on the destination that we lose all the learning, experiences, blessings and enjoyment on our way and the moment we reach our destination, we often feel there is something missing and we still have dissonance, emptiness in our life and it is not what we thought it'd be or hoped for. As a result, we keep looking for contentment and fulfillment in the future again.
It is difficult to avoid a result-driven world nowadays, but if we are mindful on our way, we can still reach the destination while enjoying the ride.
As you start, you need to know where you are going, so just before you embark on your journey, ask yourself:
How will it improve my life?
Is it aligned with my values?
Do I really want to do it?
Is it possible?
Once you set up the destination and the route in your navigation system, you are confident and committed and you can start the journey itself.
It doesn't mean you won't have to change it and be blind to opportunities on the way. The definition of a journey itself suggests that the whole process is dynamic and could be navigated, corrected and improvised. Like a good captain on a ship, you adapt to the current situation and act accordingly and decide if you stay the course or change the track.
By living the journey step by step, milestone to milestone, celebrating the wins and embracing the defeats, you become wiser, bolder and happier with every lesson you learn on the way.
By being present in the moment and focusing on the journey you will give yourself more flexibility to move towards the destination, and as it happens in life when the goal changes, you will have no regrets as you started for the destination, but you were enjoying the journey itself.
If you have put in your best effort and accept that the results are not always in your control, you become more mindful of events and your surroundings, hence more empowered, and if any hindrance arises, you will be more aware of it and you will find solutions.
Now do you take this journey just for the sake of reaching the destination, or do you respect it as a separate adventure that will lead you to the destination? It will have its own beauty, challenges, barriers, learning, rewards, experiences and wins, and in the end, the journey becomes the main focus and the destination the outcome.
"The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination." -- Don Williams, Jr.