The Most Important Part of the Journey

In our world today there are a number of different types of people who look at life in slightly different ways. There is a common acceptance that we are all on a journey, but there is huge differences in what the most important aspect of that journey may be. Let me explain and maybe you might be able to spot yourself in these ideas.

The Starting Point is the Main Thing - there is an ancient Chinese proverb which says 'A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step' and then there is the old saying from Ireland when a young man lost on the back-roads of a the Irish countryside stops to ask a farmer for directions to Dublin. "Ah," says the farmer, "if you want to get to Dublin you don't want to be starting here!" Many people think that the most important thing about this journey of life is where we start from and they spend endless hours reading, searching, exercising, and planning in an attempt to begin their journey from what they believe is the optimum location. What they may have missed is that in the process of reaching the optimum starting point their journey has already begun and their efforts to that point may have only accomplished lateral motion and not forward momentum.

The Destination is the Main Thing - for every journey there is a starting point and there is a destination and this group of people are those who cannot wait to get the end. They are the ones most likely to ask, "Are we there yet?" countless times before the journey has effectively begun. For this group it is all about reaching the goal, attaining the prize, completing the task. There is little regard for the process that has been undertaken to achieve the goal, the bottom line is simple for them - the destination is the main thing, little else matters, as long as we get where we are going. The scrap-book for this group is full of things that happened once the destination was reached. There is very little of what happened along the way and if the destination is never reached then the sense of disappointment and dissatisfaction is intense.

The Journey Itself is the Main Thing - for this group of people the destination will arrive whenever it arrives, they are more interested in what the journey itself is like and what they will discover along the way as they travel the road they are on. They may have made a mental note of where they started however they are not that concerned about the start or the end - its the middle that captivates their attention. There is something special felt by this group who enjoy taking the time to absorb their surroundings, to meet new people along the way, to engage with others who have different life experiences than them, even if they are not heading in the same direction. The scrap-book for this group is filled with stories of what happened along the way - and if they don't reach their destination, they had fun along the way.

A lot of "Destination" people want to join the "Journey" group as they acknowledge the wisdom in taking note of things along the way and learning as they travel the road they are on, but they do so by making sure they have their 'E-Z-pass' in the window, their GPS with 'real-time traffic hazard' notification, and a full tank of gas to avoid those pesky delays like stopping for re-fuelling.

The final group are a small but ever increasing group. The final group are those for whom "The People You Journey With are the Main Thing". This group have realised that destinations are important, but they are changeable. They have realised that the experiences that occur along the way are important, but they have realised that without people to share those experiences with, the meaning decreases considerably. This group long for withnesses to walk through life with. They realise that they need to connect with others, to travel with others, to journey together, to share experiences, to carry each other's burdens, to be with people. This group has learned that the people who you do life with are more important than the places you go to or even the path you take to get there. Without people to share the experience with the journey itself becomes meaningless and the destination becomes hollow.

What group are you in?