Enjoy the Journey

One element people tend to forget once they become goal oriented is to enjoy the journey.

"Live your bliss"

It's not uncommon for people to become so fixated on achieving their goals that they put everything else in life aside until so they can focus on meeting that end.

This is similar to the person who has bought a cottage in a beautiful resort area and when he goes to travel there he's solely focused on arriving at the cottage. So he hussles his family, speeds along the highway and skips dinner to make it in record time. In his mind the fun doesn't start until he reaches the cottage, and probably not even then because there will no doubt be work that's required once he arrives. In this approach he's denied himself and his family the ability to relax, enjoy the scenery and have quality time together, all reasons he purchased the cottage in the first place, until after he's reached his goal.

You might ask what is so wrong with that. The problem is with life goals, it could be months or even years before you reach your goal. In that time, your goals might change or even met some unfortunate end. If you've been waiting until you reached your goal to allow yourself to relax and have fun then you would have lost all the time for naught.

Also, once you reach your goal, you will want to set another. Personal growth is only achieved when you have something to strive for. So if you deny yourself the ability to enjoy the journey, you will find life one continously endless and joyless journey as you continue to set new goals for yourself.

Another issue is the fact that you will enviatably become tired and discouraged when unexpected issues arise. You've lead a joyless life for years to achieve this goal and then when it seems certain, another roadblock that looks like it'll take more years to overcome. When you've allowed your life to become nothing but drudgery in pursuit of your goal, this might seem like a total deal breaker. More years of drudgery? Is it really worth it?

The answer is no, the end result isn't. All along it was the journey to the end result that was worthwhile. For along that road are all new experiences you havn't taken the time to enjoy, new sites to be seen, quality time to been had with your loved ones and the enjoyment of your own personal growth. If you had allowed yourself the ability to smell the roses, enjoy the views and laugh at your mistakes along the way, such a setback is disappointing but isn't a loss of years. You've enjoyed those years of growth and you will continue to enjoy them as you continue your journey towards your goal.