In the journey of life, moments come and go, have you ever wondered, what is more important – the effort or the goal. Or, in other words, is it the journey or the destination?
I’ve had my moments when these thoughts have nagged me over and over again. Often, when I’ve taken up something where I had to give all of myself, at times going against my grain, in striving for perfection to ensure the success of a certain project. Hard work,sleepless nights, erratic work timings, losing sleep, cutting out from social dos, sparing no time for oneself, you name it. There’ve been times when it has also taken over my life, much against my liking. I’ve allowed that to happen to me so often in the past that it came to me rather naturally to say ‘yes’ to things when I clearly should have said ‘no’ and opted out.
For some reason, I’ve always been more focused on the outcome, so that my goals have been my constant motivation and the destination being my sole concern. Looking back, I think I never really focused much time or attention on the journey itself. I would say a substantial part of my life has gone with this belief taking over all my efforts and it is only now, when I’m questioning my actions, that I’m pausing to wonder why I’ve not taken heed of that faint voice coming from within, asking me to think if I was doing the right thing. Why did I choose to stifle that voice for so long, I wonder!
You could say I’ve learnt it the hard way, that ‘self’ and ‘sanity’ are the two words that need to come first in the list of my priorities. These days I’m working at it, and almost making it the deciding factor for major life-changing decisions to follow. I say ‘almost’ because I’m still a work in progress. Slowly but surely, I see myself learning to make better choices. It might often be tough, but once done, that much-needed balance feels like the best thing we’ve done to ourselves in a long long time.
My opting out of the recent blogging challenge was one such step. Let’s just say I realised at the nick of time that it was not the goal that was important for me, when the journey itself was forcing me to stress myself out beyond my capacities. Did it matter if I stuck on to it till the end if the moments in between sucked my life out and spun me into a whirlpool of chaos from where I’d again struggle to extricate myself?
I’m glad I took the decision to do what I did.
What did I learn from this?
That life is a journey with problems to solve and lessons to learn but more than that, it is also about the experiences to live through. And it matters most, how you live those moments.
I know it is my road and mine alone and that even though I have a wonderful circle of friends and family who’ve been part of my journey, how I walk it, is entirely up to me. No matter which path we tread on – whether it a quiet, a smooth or a rough one, it is still ours and we have to figure it all out, no matter how experienced we feel are, or how old or mature we are. It has taken me years to realise that even when we think we’ve figured it all out, there is still so much more to learn about life every day.
Some of the most beautiful moments in life happen when we least expect it. Not all goals are meant to be reached, nonetheless, we spend a big chunk of our time chasing those goals, only to realise that they are not meant for us. Should we throw away the moments that we’ve spent working towards those goals, then? Should we not take the journey into account, the lessons, the experiences, the learnings, the fears, the doubts, the smiles, the tears, do they not matter at all?
Tell me, dear reader, which of the two, in your view, has been the more important thing – the journey, or the destination? Why do you say so?
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Linking up with #MondayMusings, hosted by Corinne Rodrigues
