Life Is A Journey

By Jim Koury,Editor, Diversity Rules Magazine
© 2013 Diversity Rules Magazine.  All Rights Reserved.
www.diversityrulesmagazine.com

“Life is a journey, not a destination,” as the old adage goes. It is a series of events or mini-destinations, if you will, each with a lesson to learn.  If the lesson is learned and we use it to move forward and grow, then we reach a new plateau upon which to begin to work toward the next stopping point in our lives.

Unfortunately many people remain at a particular mini-destination, get comfortable, and stop growing.  It is at this point when life stops being a journey, and tends to be one void of learning and experiencing new things, and using the knowledge gained to become the person we were meant to be.  The focus is not on what can be but is grounded in what is.  The vision of what is important in our lives becomes obscured thus causing us to meander about indefinitely on a sterile plain of existence, and not focusing on what needs to be done to move forward with our lives.

Life can beat us down, and draw us away from what we truly desire, and many times, we begin to think we don’t deserve the things we dream of, and hope for, and settle for a lesser quality of life.  We tend to make excuses for why things are the way they are and place blame on events that we have no control over.  We resign ourselves to lives of quiet desperation.  We surrender our ability to control our destinies based on external events that, in reality, are placed before us to work through and overcome.  Life is designed to strengthen our resolve and commitment to change the circumstances to which many times we helplessly resign ourselves.

What are your challenges?  What is it that is holding you back or making you believe that you cannot reach the next plateau of your life?  Are you allowing your challenges to dictate your actions or inaction?  Are they clouding your ability to objectively analyze the situation and consider options for moving forward?  Are you listening to others and making their doubts and insecurities your reasons for not doing something you should to change a particular situation in your life?

Life is a series of choices.  Each choice we make has a consequence.  Instilled in us all is an ability to choose and decide what we will or will not do with our lives.  The simple fact of the matter is that we control our lives; no one else will make our decisions for us or tell us what is right or wrong.  We make decisions every day that will impact our lives the next day, next month or for years to come.

The good thing is that tomorrow is always a new day and with individual resolve, or a situation that forces us to change our ways, decisions can be made which will change the course of one’s destiny.  I could have decided to stay in my dank, musty closet; remaining hidden, and living a life that was not mine and thus silencing the life that I was supposed to lead.  However, I did not.  I made a conscious decision to change my destiny.  You can too!

Do not delude yourselves into thinking your life does not matter; that you do not touch other people’s lives in ways that are not visible or known to us.  If we do not grow into the people we are meant to be, there are lives that will go untouched and unaffected by the music or books we write, the words of comfort that we give based on empathy with situations we have lived through, or just maturing with the wisdom we gain by just living our lives and working toward changing them and overcoming those aspects of our lives which we are not happy with or that need improvement.

Do not arrive at the end of your life regretting not making the decisions you needed to make.  Life is a journey!  Make the best of it.  Make it as fulfilling and meaningful as you can.  Sometimes decisions need to be made that may seem irrational and crazy to some people observing from a distance.  Some decisions may seem frightening and outside of one’s comfort zone, but personal greatness is derived from stepping and thinking outside the box.  Sometimes we need to create a whole new box.

Do whatever it takes to make you turn the corner of your life and decide to move to the next plateau.  Do it with disregard of what people may think, or what they may say.  They are not in control of your destiny… YOU ARE!

Life is a journey, not a destination.