The journey of your life

How do we measure our own lives? For many, the quality of life is seen as a quantitative figure. Life is measured in touchstones that we’ve strived for: attaining the big new job, the marriage, kids, money, and luxuries. We are constantly looking to do the next thing. We are looking away from ourselves in the present peering to some hypothetical version of ourselves in the future. This perspective is so wired in, that we miss the value of life as it is right now, in front of us. “It’s not the Destination, It’s the journey.” It’s a great quote, but how many of us live by it?

The real shame is that, regardless of what you achieve, the journey will never end if you are unwilling to stay in the present. The destination will never arrive if at each touchstone, every trophy, promotion, or hallmark, there is a feeling in the pit your stomach asking, “what now?”. It’s a hunger so desperate, no meal can fill. And many of us spend our whole lives insatiable, searching in vain. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

The trick is programming. Somewhere in life, we’ve been given the notion that a life worth living, is a life of searching. And it’s usually about searching for something outside ourselves. We spend all our mental capacity here. We’ve been meditating on the wrong the part of the journey. We’ve been meditating on the destination. We ignore the priori, our self-evident truth, that life is beautiful right now.

Our exercise is thus: When we instinctively look to the destination and that insatiable longing creeps into our soul, stop and practice contemplative gratefulness. It could be your health, your home, or your family. You just have to consider what is good and right in front of you. Do that again and again.  That’s the journey you’re looking at. That’s life.