Life is a Journey. If we view it that way, we focus on all our experiences. Each step and misstep becomes part of our life and when we look back, we fondly reminisce about the ups and downs, the hardships and fortunes, the hits and misses we have had in life.
And through it all, we recall the people who came into our life. The relationships that still exist and the ones that ended, some naturally, some badly. And in recounting our achievements, we enjoy remembering the struggles and challenges we overcame. Our life story becomes the story of our journey.
But if we look at life as a race, we stop appreciating the experiences and get fixated on just achieving our goal, and sometimes at any cost. Without realising, we start living a life of comparisons, mentally sizing up others. Our entire happiness gets pegged to us achieving our goal. Coming first, moving ahead of others and acquiring more than the next becomes a measure of our success and the way we live. Because we’ve looked at life as a race.
So is life about the Journey or is it about the Goal. The two are interlinked.
We must set ambitious, inspiring and meaningful goals for ourselves. The mind cannot function in a vacuum and needs an inspiring goal to motivate it, lest it lapses into lethargy. Having set the goal, we make our plans and embark on the journey,
And we soon discover that the way we do something today impacts the results in future. The result is nothing but our current action in a future time frame. We’ve learnt this principle the hard ward way when we’ve put on weight. Today’s meal is tomorrow’s result on the weighing scale. And today’s self-control and regular exercise is also tomorrow’s result on the weighing scale. It’s not the weighing scale we need to get fixated on. It’s today’s meal and exercise.
This simple experience has a message for us. How we traverse the journey, impacts the goal. And having set our direction, we don’t rush through life like a race, but go through each experience, experiencing it to its fullest because that’s where the true value and essence of our life is.
And we come to understand that it’s not a conflict between the journey and the goal. We realise the Journey is the Goal.
Love the weighing scale analogy!
In fact I love the way you use analogies daily to simplify things.
Enjoy the journey!
Hope to shake hands with you one day !