I’ve been thinking a lot about journeys and destinations.
I’ve always been impatient to get somewhere really fast.
I want to have built a huge blog following since yesterday.
This is where the tempting magic bullet whizzes into our consciousness.
We’re sold these bullets day in day out as a shortcut to get results.
Take these 10 steps and lose half your body weight.
Become a millionaire in 2 days.
Get rid of all your anxiety with these 5 strategies.
Okay I’m paraphrasing- but only slightly.
It’s not so sexy or illuminating to hear that’s it’s about showing up every day consistently. And that even when we do this, frankly, we still have no idea where we will end up.
As someone put it the other day, not everything in life is “microwaveable”. Some stuff is. Soup tastes just fine. Other stuff doesn’t work out that way.
This is how it is for so many of the commitments we make in life. There is no cheat sheet.
Your new healthy food regime needs more time, or practice.
Your new work out needs more time, or practice.
Your studies needs more time, or practice.
Your business needs more time, or practice.
Your career needs more time, or practice.
And in reference to the getting rid of your anxiety with 5 strategies- that’s impossible, and it’s not sensible to attempt to do it.
(A quick aside here, I’m not thinking of those individuals who have gone all in at something for a reasonable period of time and realised its not for them, and have wisely moved on)
Expecting things to be done yesterday is usually another form of sabotage.
We find ourselves going: “well if it didn’t work in this unreasonably small slither of time I’ve allocated to it, I may as well not bother at all”.
The perfect get out card.
It reminds me of when I’m making pastry. There’s always a bit where I’m rolling it out and I’m just about to lift it up and put it in the pastry dish and it is close to tearing in half, and part of me wants to throw it out and start again, but I’ve learnt that if I stay with it, it works out – with some patching up afterwards.
This is why managing our own expectations is so important.
If you want to build something it’s going to take many attempts & lots of woman (or man) hours. Think of building a house, a business, a relationship. They take time.
We need the challenges involved in the journey in order to reach the destination.
There will be challenges, but we don’t have to experience struggles.
They are not the same thing.
The former empowers us, whilst the latter reduces us to victims.
We have to watch out for the interpretation that we put on reality.
I’ve also realised that we have a choice around how willing we are to be fulfilled and excited by the journey itself.
As Danielle LaPorte puts it: “the journey has to feel the way you want the destination to feel.”