The Createyourself Journey

Imagine you are traveling to Niagara Falls from New York City in a comfortable touring bus. The plan is to stay off the expressway and drive through the Upper Delaware Scenic Area then over to the various National Forests and Wildlife Management areas of inner New York State through the Alleghany then into the Upstate around Buffalo to get to Niagara Falls.

This trip will take you about fifteen hours. The only rule on this trip is to keep your eyes covered throughout the journey. You can only open your eyes when you reach your destination. How will you feel during the trip? Will you enjoy it? You will most probably find this journey tedious and boring.

It seems pointless to continue such a monotonous trip. You would likely feel that you wanted to get off the bus and return home. You are missing out on all the beautiful sights between New York City and Niagara Falls that produce the allure and charm of your planned journey. It will be hard to get to know new people, and you’ll miss most of what would make your experience unforgettable. Instead, your journey is not enjoyable. After only a few hours, you feel exhausted, like the journey will never end.

Your life is kind-of-like this never-ending journey. Your goals are the destinations along the way for you to enjoy, and your dreams are of the things you learn, create, and share with others. Too many of us believe our journey seems to be too tedious; we feel lethargic, and we want to give up because we believe others have an unfair advantage and their lives are easier than ours.

People tend to view the marathon of achieving our goals as the point, so they focus too much on overcoming the hurdles and attaining the results. We often forget to enjoy the moment of the journey and open our eyes to all that is provided to us in the present. A singular concentration on the destination blurs out the beauty of your journey.

Setting goals is necessary, but being too centered on the outcome may make you lose interest in your goals, and when you have difficulty overcoming barriers, you will tend to give up.

“Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.” —Arthur Ashe

One of my earlier friends, Jessica, was habitual of eating too much junk food. When she finally realized its impact on her health, she had already gained much weight. Her motivation led her to set a goal to lose twenty pounds in six months. She changed her diet and joined a fitness center. She began working out hard and lifting weights. She was determined to start losing from the first month. However, after about five weeks, she found that she hadn’t lost a pound. Her weight was still the same. It was quite disappointing for her.

Even after completely changing her lifestyle, her weight hadn’t fallen. She tried to figure out the reason on her own, but she couldn’t understand. She talked to her fitness trainer Mike, who said she would probably see the results from the second month. She became even more concerned about her goal now. All the time, she kept pondering over how fat she looked. Another month passed, but she still didn’t lose weight.

Finally, she decided to give up on her struggle. She returned to her unhealthy lifestyle and stopped going to the fitness center. When she didn’t appear in her fitness class for three days, her fitness trainer called her to find out why. Jessica told him everything. He asked Jessica to meet him. When she met him, he said,

“Jessica, you are so focused on the end results that you can’t see the benefits your fitness journey has blessed you with.”

Mike made her realize the positive changes in Jessica’s life. She had never noticed how active she had become since changing her lifestyle. Exercise and a balanced diet also helped her improve her work productivity. She had made new friends at the fitness center and was healthier physically and mentally than before, but Jessica hadn’t noticed all these improvements in her life because all she cared about was how much she weighed.

Many of us act similarly at almost every stage of our lives. As we spoke about in a previous post, Createyourself an Opportunity, we discussed how some students are always worried about their grades, outshining classmates, and making their families proud. In this struggle, students tend to forget to enjoy actual learning in the class. They may get the desired results but don’t enjoy their long academic journey.

We should be continuously learning as a never-ending part of our life’s journey. When parents pressure their children to earn the highest grades no matter what, they are falsely teaching their children that it is all about the grade and not the knowledge gained nor even that the process of learning is the most important aspect of school, not the grade.

Don't be that parent, and don't do the same to yourself. The Journey is more important than the destination!

If you ever want to speak with me directly, just reach out via?LinkedIn?or through our mobile community app,?Createyourself.com

Have a great week, Gordon

PS - Feel free to buy our Kindle version of?How to Createyourself

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