You will have often heard the saying “It’s more about the journey than the destination”. In most of our lives we experience twists and turns, the expected and the unexpected. We make many intentional decisions expecting certain results and getting them or ending up with something else. We delay decisions and life has a habit of making them for us. Certainly, in our intentional decision making we have a good idea of what results we want to achieve.
There is a process however from the point of a decision to the end result and that process invariably never follows a straight line. There will be challenges and obstacles that we will not have expected we have to overcome. It is fair to say that it is these challenges and obstacles that provide us with essential life lessons which facilitate the growth of our fortitude and skillset. They also give us a bigger perspective on what makes us tick as people and what life is all about.
When we reach our destination whatever that looks like, we can either feel excited, happy, contented or disappointed, disillusioned and depressed depending on whether the result has met or not met our expectations. In short, the result is never guaranteed.
Take professional athletes for example. They train obsessively for many hours every day getting up early and putting in the hard yards before most of us are out of bed. Their goal is to compete at the highest level on the world stage and the win at competitions such as World Championships or at the Olympics.
During the process of preparation, they have to deal with challenges such as injuries, mental blocks, financial burdens and selection challenges. They could do all the work needed and still end up not being selected or having to pull out due to injury.
So, what gets these athletes to persist through the physical, time and other demands to train obsessively every day when there is never a guarantee they will even reach their destination? Sure, the lure of the potential chance of success and acclaim on the world stage are a big driver but still there is at least a 50/50 chance they will not make it.
Perhaps their journey into the unknown is also part of the driver for them. Perhaps the single-minded pursuit of their particular sport and the development of their fitness and skill is also an integral component of their decision making. For sure when the going gets tough the shine of an Olympic gold medal can help to pull them through even the biggest challenges but is that the biggest driver for them.
Let’s consider a musician writing and performing their own songs. Their objective maybe to write, perform and record their original material and produce a record or CD or to just have their music streamed on Spotify.
However, in the process of pursuing that objective they also get to express their innate talent, develop and hone their musical chops, learn to be more creative, and develop their performance, arrangement and production skills. It is also possible that due to either internal or external factors they never complete their project, or they could achieve much more than they expected and win prestigious acclaim for their music.
The results in either case of the athlete and musician seem to be entirely in “the lap of the Gods” so to speak. Yet there is one predictable and guaranteed result of their efforts to follow their dreams. That is, they will never be the person they were at the start of the journey.
Is the prize therefore more than the end result but more who we become on the journey as growth happens regardless of whether we succeed or don’t succeed. I believe that it is because even when success is achieved the feeling of exhilaration quickly wears off and is soon replaced with the need to start another trip.
Sit back and enjoy the journey we call life and all that it offers you.