If you’re not loving your life then it may be time to course correct, because life is the journey.
If there’s something you’re supposed to be creating but you’ve been avoiding it, are you sure that’s the thing for you? Don’t do something just because you think you’re supposed to, or because that was the plan, and especially not because someone else told you to.
It’s always a good idea to come up for air and assess whether what you’re doing is in sync with your purpose. If not, then it might be time to create a better plan and a way to get there.
The good news is you don’t have to have it all figured out before you start. This is the era of rapid progress through iteration and adaptation. Things change quickly and we learn to adjust nimbly to the changing landscape in the journey of life.
I’ll Be Happy When…
Don’t wait until you arrive at your goal… at your destination… at having X number of dollars… or the job, the body, the relationship of your dreams. Don’t wait for happy. Choose it now, wherever you are in your journey because there you are… there… in it!
Fill this moment on the timeline of your life with as much positivity and gratitude as you can. For it will never happen again, and what comes next… each next moment is improved by the love in the present.
If you think about it, the majority of goals are a thin line of time compared to the journey there. In other words, the arrival is a at the end of the timeline of your current goal.
Life is a marathon not a sprint.
Examples of Life as the Journey
- Spending two hours preparing a lovely meal that’s devoured in 20 minutes with cleanup to follow
- Practicing a year for a recital that’s over in two hours
- Painting for months for an art show that lasts a week
- Sewing a quilt for months that’s gifted on Christmas as a family heirloom that will last lifetimes
- A year of writing to finally publish your book
What examples would you add? Let us know and we’re glad to add it here along with a link to your website of social page if you have that.
No dream is a grand as who we become by the effort required to achieve it.
Enjoy the Journey
The published book in your hands is the goal, but you must enjoy the writer’s journey in all it’s highs and lows, else why write? The long timeline is where life happens. Wherever you are now is where your life unfolds. This is the place to apply the philosophy you believe in during your most peaceful, inspired and exalted of moments.
The finish lines of our goals are just a dash on the timeline of our lives. But life lives in each day, not “someday”.
Most of us spend far more time in planning, preparations and follow up than in the enjoyment of the arrival at any goal. So we might as well enjoy the preparation as much as the result… the journey as much as the destination.
Don’t wait for happy to happen ‘when‘. Invite Happy to live with you and go wherever you go.
~LeAura Alderson, writer, editor, creator iCreateDaily.com®
Life is in the Day
Life is in the day… today… this is it. Life is the journey.
Find the love in each day. Bring the love to each day. If you decide to have a good day, you’re more likely to. The day is only bad if you name it so. Even if bad things happen, you can choose to focus on what’s good. And it’s important that you choose because what you focus on is what grows in your life.
Nothing good lasts forever. Nor does anything bad. So to do your best with whatever is, is the way to bring joy to life.
Find the good in the bad… adjust in the detours… bounce with the potholes… find a way around the obstacles… or maybe the obstacle is the way.
Because it’s not what happens but the meaning we give to what happens. We can find joy and focus on the blessings, even when things seem bad.
So it’s not “I’ll be happy when….” But rather, it’s choosing to be happy now, for this is life and the day is only bad if you name it so.
The day is only bad if you name it so.
~LeAura Alderson, creator iCreateDaily.com®
It’s Just Another Bug
A former boss introduced me to the phrase: It’s just another bug on the windshield of life.
When things aren’t going well, for it’s inevitable at some point… perhaps at many points along the way. remember to immerse in creativity, positivity and beauty, and maybe put on some music and dance like nobody’s looking… or rather… like you don’t care who is!
And when the really, really bad stuff happens…? Grieve, stomp, shout… whatever you need to do, then, get on with it. Don’t waste precious time on what you can’t change. Instead, keeping moving forward into ‘can’.
Focus on the good and you’ll have more of that.
“Happiness is homemade.”
~Shannon Deanna Schofield, author, beekeeper
When You Can’t Change it…
We’re inspired by the story of Hal Elrod, survivor, author, entrepreneur and inspirational speaker. Hal was clinically dead for six minutes following a catastrophic auto accident at the age of 20. Then a few years later he was diagnosed with a rare a deadly cancer.
Hal saved his own life and that of many others by a simple three word mantra he learned from his sales training with the CutCo Knife company, (way to go Cutco!). If you can improve the circumstance, then stop complaining and get busy. If you can’t change it, move on and don’t dwell.
That philosophy is summed up in three words.
“Can’t change it.”
If you can’t change it, accept it, adjust and move on.[1]https://youtu.be/eKyY0f_NaDI
Decide to have a good day, and you will.
~LeAura Alderson, creator iCreateDaily.com®
Life Is not About the Destination
Not to be morose, but when we think about it, the final destination of this life is indeed to end at death. This sobering thought makes it all the more important to remember to find joy in the journey.
Within this journey of life there will be many goals that are destinations, and in fact the best way to achieve what you want is to set goals and work them daily. If you’re procrastinating, and always placing other things in front of your goals, that could be an indication that your heart isn’t really in it.
If that’s the case then it may be time to assess and course correct. If you want to go where you think you want to go, you should also plan on enjoying the journey there.
For example, if your goals is to write a book, it’s important to enjoy writing daily. If you want to write a book but don’t enjoy writing, then you’re focused on the destination rather than the journey.
Of course there will be goals that involve things we’d rather not do, such, but in that case we have to do the necessary to make the rest possible. In that case, when we can’t do what we love, we can learn to love whatever we do.
Life is the journey.
~Multiple authors
Immersion
What if you’re certain that what you’re doing or planning is definitely what you want to be doing? If you’re on track with purpose but still procrastinating, then you’re avoiding doing the hard work of the deep dive.
Easier to play in the shallows than to swim in the deep, but going deep makes all the difference. Immerse. When we take the time to go deep on anything that interests us, we become more interested and more engaged.
Life’s a Trip!
If your dreams seem so far away, remember to find the joy in the journey, because you are there… you are in it. So even if it’s not what you wanted… not yet what you’d hoped for, don’t let one more precious day go by without finding the good in it.
Make today count.
Appreciate the scenery along the way, and the richness of life, for even the depths of despair give way to hope and light and love and beauty… to the heights of the human experience.
If you’re planning a cross country trip, from New York to San Diego, it’s a long drive. You will enjoy that drive far more if you plan interesting stops along the way.
Same thing for your life goals. Set waypoints where you take time to reflect on the life goals you’ve accomplished today, this week, month, or this year. Enjoy and celebrate how far you’ve come, as well as the lessons and experiences along the way.
It is in the journey that the way becomes more clear.
~LeAura Alderson, creator iCreateDaily.com®
In the End
Consider an imaginary scenario where you had one day left to think, to sing, to dance, to walk, to hug, to love, to eat, to enjoy a sunset. Hopefully, you wouldn’t waste that precious day in regret, in “what ifs”, in squabbling, and all the multitude of petty things we humans can get caught up in.
On your last day, hopefully, you would remember to enjoy every aspect of the day. You would remember to love and express love for those whom you hold dear in your heart, and the things on this planet that you appreciate.
If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.
~Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch Post-Impressionist painter, 1853-1890
Committed and Accountable
There are few things more effective toward keeping us on track than accountability. If you’re not tracking your progress, how will you know where you are in your journey? If you are committed, you will want to be held accountable.
Hold yourself accountable to yourself… to your journal… your work…. to an accountability p