The Journey - Not the Destination

by Kara Fiechter

Although traveling can lead to some of the best memories and experiences in life, it isn’t always the easiest to get the dream vacation or trip. Once you travel enough, you’ll start to realize that half of the fun is watching the problems unfold. Very rarely do things in life run like clock-work, so why would they on vacation. The important lesson to learn is to enjoy the journey, not just the destination. A speaker talked about two men who prepared three days for a day hike to the top of a mountain. They had everything ready and longed to enjoy the sights at the top. They started their trudge up the hill. They were eager to get to the top by dusk so they could see the sunset. They stared at the ground as they made their trek. Finally, they reached the top to see the beautiful view. About five minutes later, one of the guys looked at the other and said, “well that was neat, now back down?” The moral of the story was that they focused so much of their time and effort on the top of the hill. They never stopped to enjoy the beauty of the hike. They got to the top, and the joy of achieving quickly faded. The destination was very short lived while the journey took days. Sometimes in our lives and especially for vacations to me, I look so forward to getting there that I forget to enjoy the process. The process includes the tough times when things go wrong and you have to learn something new.

Although I learned this mostly in traveling, it applies in every aspect of life. We too often get caught up in diving into a new project or new business, and we forget that the slip ups and problems that occur along the way only help us become better people overall and normally help the project get done in the best way possible. When was the last time that you just sat back and pondered upon all that you’ve accomplished? We often look at the list of things still to do instead of the accomplishments that we have had. Understanding that the journey is the most important part of life will not only make you happier when problems arise, but it will give you more resilience. When problems arise, you will have the ability to quickly respond and move your strategy instead of sulking that you didn’t finish yet. I challenge you today to take a step back in your job, personal life, or in the latest project that you’re working on and recall how far you’ve come and all of the obstacles that you’ve overcome. I promise you will have a new burst of energy to continue.