Value The Journey, Appreciate The Steps

In this present world that we live in, a lot of people are so focused on the destination and what they want to achieve, but they tend to overlook the journey itself. It is the cumulative of the journey that brings one to the destination. This means that you cannot get to the destination without going through the journey. Life is not entirely based on the product that has been achieved but you need to also know that it is also based on the process. It is true that the destination (or success) is the ultimate reward, but you need to value each step that leads you there, so that the end result will have more meaning.

When I was in school, during some of our mathematics examination, questions will come that will need answers. However, the examiner will know that a lot of students will simply get the answers without solving it - some will even use calculator. So they will simply say "show your working." This is to say that; even though you have arrived at the destination, you need to explain how you arrived at it. So also in life, the product is good, no doubt, but you should not also overlook the process. This is why you need to focus more on what leads you to the destination than the destination itself.

When you value the journey, you will learn resilience, discipline, and the ability to pull through even in the midst of challenges. It is through these challenges that you tend to develop inner strength, capacity, perseverance and patience. You will agree with me that the person that is 6.5 feet tall today did not just wake up one morning and see that he is 6.5 feet, he had to pass through the process of growth and development which may even look slow but it is all part of the process. If you want to gain height in one day by climbing up a heel, you will still climb down and return back to your former height. But when you pass through the process of growth and grow up, you will remain up.

One of the major undoings of a lot of people in this generation is that they are too quick to look for easiest way out and it has led them to following shortcuts to success, which, some of them might come with negative consequences. If you want to achieve something significant and worthwhile, then you have to follow the processes. It is by valuing the journey that you will qualify to arrive at the destination. You may not know it but the truth is that it is the rule that you break, and the processes which you do not follow, that ultimately breaks you. In life, a lot of things are guided by principles, laws, processes, etc, which you should follow to achieve what you are looking for. You may supposedly arrive at the destination, but if the process you follow is not worthy, then of what value it is?

I once watched a track event sometime back. It was a racing championship where competitors were assigned their own track as it should be. The race took place and at the end of the race, one competitor braced the finishing line first. Just when he was about to celebrate his victory, it was cut short when they replayed the video of the race to find out that he stepped out of his lane a bit during the race. Even though he finished the fastest, but he was disqualified. He certainly contravened the process and as such, the product did not count. In the same way in life, may people have been cut off from the blessedness of arriving at the destination because they contravened the journey.

By appreciating each step that you take, you tend to live more in the present. Instead of having your dominant attention on the future and forgetting about the moment, it is better to live and build the present, so as to usher you into a great tomorrow. It is what you do today and how you have lived in the present moment that will create what your tomorrow will look like. It is true that you need to have hopes of the future and also make plans for it, but it should not be at the expense of the present. Make the process and the journey worthwhile, so the destination can also be worthwhile.

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