"Life's about the journey...not the destination".
It’s a quote many of us have heard or read before… “enjoy the journey, not the destination”.
Inspirational quotes like this are not for everyone, but can be quite interesting. Read them with a certain mindset and you see them for what they are. Words put together to maybe make you stop and think for a second.
End goals and destinations are great, but if that is your only focus, you will miss out on so much. You could be blinkered by your destination and what’s worse, your destination may actually let you down in a big way (have you ever heard the saying “the grass isn’t always greener on the other side”?) So why not enjoy the journey along the way.
Don’t mistake enjoy the journey with take it easy and party all the time either by the way! It can mean:
- take stock of where you are in life.
- figure out what is right for you.
- if you want more, then chase it down.
- prepare yourself for hard work and failures.
- learn along the way.
- pat yourself on the back when you need it most.
- set small, realistic targets and celebrate them.
- accept the destination may not be all it’s cracked up to be.
It's your choice.
If you were to ask a room of 100 people what they would like on their journey through life, let’s assume the vast majority would choose happiness. That’s all we really want isn’t it, to be happy in life?
Some will say money or power, but most will say happiness, which brings us to enjoy your journey. It’s your choice how you choose to see things and react to them.
To give one example, it took my wife and I over 10 years to buy our home. We lived in lots of rented accommodations, some great, some not! There were days and weeks I thought we would never be in a position to buy our own home. We never let it get us down for long though and never thought we were entitled to anything. We just kept believing in the process and to be honest, we really had a great time along the way!
If we had obsessed ourselves with buying a home (the destination), those 10 years could have been wasted with only this end goal in sight. We could have been miserable as lots of things went against us. Instead, we chose to be happy with what we had, knowing that we were working towards a goal and that this would take time.
Have you ever reached a particular milestone in your life, and when you look back you realise it was the highs and lows along the way that helped you cherish it even more?
It’s your choice to view your situation how you want to. Try to look at your journey and appreciate it for what it is, don’t let the destination consume you.
The journey takes longer.
Matt Williams writes “we won’t truly understand the journey until we have taken it…but let’s try”. That’s one reason this saying can sound annoying to people. Understanding why and what you are doing something for, may not take place until well after the time. We just need to believe it makes sense as long as we do our best and enjoy the process.
Let’s look at some common “destinations”:
- get rich.
- lose weight.
- get fit.
- be “successful”.
- have a big house.
- get married.
- have kids.
- graduate.
- have a “great job”.
One thing all of the above have in common, is they will generally take quite a bit of time and effort. Even then, some of those “destinations” may not be to your liking and you’ll have to start over.
That all means the journey can take up more of our time than the actual destination. Surely we owe it to ourselves to enjoy it along the way?
The destination will keep changing.
Life Chief Nation writer Grace put it well when she wrote:
“This idea of happiness coming after goal completion is actually backward. Once you’ve reached that goal, you’ll presumably create another goal and the cycle will continue. Happiness actually comes before the goal is completed. It begins with your journey”.
We always seem to want that little bit more, have you noticed that? You set a little goal, achieve it, feel great for a while then wonder what’s next?
If you agree with the above, then by default, that means our “destination” will keep changing too. It’s healthy to want to improve your situation, but if you focus all of your happiness on the destination, that means happiness is fleeting. Your goal will soon change, meaning you need to chase down that “destination” again.
How exhausting would that be? Whereas if you enjoy the journey along the way to each “destination”, your level of happiness will be a lot more sustainable.
The destination might disappoint you.
Let’s take the bullet points listed as “destinations” above for a minute. You achieve what you think you wanted to achieve and something happens…you realise it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. You:
- don’t like your big job.
- can’t afford your big house.
- didn’t like what you graduated in.
- married for the wrong reasons.
And so on! You have poured all your energy into that destination and realise it doesn’t make you happy. However, if you take the time to focus on the journey, or process, you might figure out along the way “wait a minute, this isn’t what I want”.
Taking time to reflect will give you the opportunity to adjust your goals and continue on your new path, filled with confidence and positivity.
To conclude.
Life itself is a never ending journey. We set ourselves goals along the way and over time began to call them destinations. Then people somehow became obsessed with this “destination” thinking true happiness lay there.
“Enjoy the journey, not the destination”…if you can accept this for what it means, all of a sudden you will be grateful for things you never even considered before and be all the happier for it. So go ahead…enjoy your journey!