In the great Greek poem by Constantine Cavafy titled
"Ithaka," we are reminded that it is the voyage and the
adventures on the way that count, not the arrival itself.
This seems to be a most difficult truth to understand.
This is not to say that a person's goal in life is unimportant.
On the contrary, it's vital. For without a goal, a distant destination,
we would not be on the trip at all. Instead we'd run
around in circles, endlessly following the shoreline around
our tiny island. Every person needs a great and distant goal
toward which to strive. But in traveling toward it, he should
try to keep in mind that the fabled land he seeks has shores
much like the one he left behind and that its purpose is not
so much a resting place but, rather, the reason for the trip.
Where a person goes is not nearly as important as how he
gets there. That a house is built is not all that important. It
is the manner in which it is built that makes it great, average,
or poor. That we live is not nearly as important as the
manner in which we live.
Misunderstanding this often keeps people in a state of
unhappiness and anxiety. They forget to enjoy the trip.
They forget what they're really looking for, or what they
should be looking for: the discovery of themselves. This is
the island toward which everyone should journey. It's a difficult
journey, beset, like the travels of Ulysses, with many
dangers and hardships. But it gives real meaning to life, and
there are many rich rewards to be found along the way – all
kinds of serendipitous benefits.
It means asking the questions that are hard to answer:
Where am I going? Why am I going there? What do I really
want, and why do I want it? Am I gradually realizing
my potential? Am I discovering
my best talents and abilities and
using them to their fullest? Am I
living fully extended in my one
chance at life on earth? Am I
really living? Who am I?
These are the questions
everyone must ask himself
and answer. As Emerson said, "Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we
must carry it with us, or we find it not."
Whatever you're looking for must first be found within
you, whether it be peace, happiness, riches, or great accomplishments.
Everything we do outwardly is only an expression
of what we are inwardly. To ask for anything else is as
absurd as looking for apples on an oak tree.
So the person who knows what he wants, knows what he
must become, and he then fixes his attention on the preparation
and development of himself. As he grows toward the
ideal he holds in his mind, he finds interest, zest, and joy
on the journey. He looks forward to tomorrow, but he also
enjoys today, for it is the tomorrow he looked forward to
yesterday. He knows that if he cannot find meaning and
value in his present, he will very likely be missing it in his
future. Today is the future of five years ago. Are you enjoying
it as much as you thought you would? Have you progressed
to the point you wanted then to reach?
These are the questions that make us think.
Source: The Essence of Success by Earl Nightingale
