Destinations, risks and journeys
Where are you headed? The choices you’re making, the effort, the sacrifices—where is the destination?
We make choices every day about our destination. And because of those choices, we go on a journey.
Along that journey, we take risks but we also experience an internal narrative about those risks.
And so, destinations, risks (perceived and actual) and journeys define our lives.
It’s possible you’ve come to the conclusion that the destination you’ve chosen isn’t for you. That being a pop star, a successful VP of accounting or a receptionist with a secure position isn’t a life you’d like to lead.
But don’t confuse that with the journey. Maybe you’d be happy with the pot of gold at the end of your rainbow, but it’s entirely possible you don’t want to suffer the discomfort and indignities and effort it will take to get to that destination, that you’d like an easier path. You’ll happily take the destination but the truth is, the journey is too arduous.
And don’t confuse that with your imagining of the risks along the way. It might be that you want the destination, that you are willing to put up with (or even delight in) the journey but your narrative of the risks and dangers are just too much to handle.
When we conflate the destination with the journey and with our narrative of the risks, we have no hope of improving any of the three. Instead, we often pushed to throw out all three at once or embrace them all. But it’s possible, with effort and planning, to make the journey more palatable or the risks feel more tolerable.
The destination isn’t the journey. And our narrative of the actual risks is up to us.