Just enjoy the journey
- Kyle Snyder: Live on Purpose
- August 18, 2019
- 1067
“Aim for the sky but move slowly, enjoying every step along the way. It is all those little steps that make the journey complete.” — Chanda Kochhar.
It is great to be ambitious, have a dream or an overall goal in mind. In fact by having goals in mind, we have a destination in mind, and the idea of not getting comfortable with where we are in life can give the push we need to be our best and live the life God wants for us. If we don’t like where we are at, that can be the motivation we need to get us to the life we want to live.
I am a big believer in having goals to work toward, but I do wonder if we can be so focused on the overall that we lose the ability to enjoy the journey. I know for myself I can be so consumed with the end in mind that the journey to get where I need to go seems overwhelming at times. It’s like we can have tunnel vision and not see what is in front of our face. Unfortunately our goals can even be right in front of us and we miss them totally.
I think enjoying the journey means we have an overall goal or goals in mind, but we are enjoying each step we take, looking around for teachable moments and not rushing toward the end result.
A good way to look at it is getting the most out of each step, just being in the moment and knowing we can’t do anything about the past or the future. All that matters now is the present.
Sometimes our goal can be right in front of our face, but we are too focused on thinking it is way out somewhere in space that we miss the goal completely.
The journey is a big part of the goal. I dare say about 90 percent or more is being on the journey. I even wonder if the determining factor in some cases is how we act in the journey. Life is not a race; it is a marathon.
We live in a fast-food world. We want what we want now and heaven forbid we have to wait on something or even God himself. Sometimes our actions make us wait because the goal becomes more important than God. If God gives us the goal, we need to focus on him, not on the goal.
Take my own journey for example: When I was done with high school, I wanted to go to college so bad I could taste it. However, college wasn’t in the picture for me. It took a very long time for me to accept it and move on with my life, but I eventually did. I was OK with where I was at but not too content. I couldn’t see my purpose in life, and in a way I blamed it on not going to college.
I didn’t look around and see where I was at and see all the blessings in my life. Over time the opportunity did arise for me to go to college for a semester course. It wasn’t at all what I had in mind.
I didn’t really know why I was going, after I laid it down, but I did pay attention to what God was showing me, and I made up my mind to enjoy it. If it wasn’t for having to write papers in college, I would never have began writing.
If we choose to look around and see what is going on, we may come across something that will change our life for the better. However, we need to want to see. The thing can be right there waiting for us. It might look like a setback, but it actually can be what we need to go to the next level.
Also, we get too worked up about having everything our way. We don’t need everything our way. All we need to know is what we need to learn to get where we want to be.
Look for opportunities to learn and grow in life. It will make you better along the way.