Success is a journey, not a destination. The train doors have opened wide and you’ve chosen to enter the train. Trains can take the shape of what ever it is that you imagined them to be. It’s rather like football practice in the South. To the high school player who is expecting to go to the Superbowl, when coach let’s him on the field he runs in circles with enthusiasm, can’t wait to show coach just how strong he can get. Every pound put on his weight lifting goals to him is one more challenge over come to get to the game. He wears the jerseys proudly during Friday’s school day, he delights in being part of a team and the corp de spirit that comes with being part of something bigger than himself. When he arrives to run through the paper sign, amazing purpose and determination fills his spirit for he wants to then do something more than make the fame and fortune he once hoped to do as an individual, he realizes that these people, these people in the stands, on the field, the ones he sits in class, are rooting for him, for the team, and in that instant he is changed.
Journeys can be invigorating when you look outside yourself to see who is counting on you and whose life you can effect when you simply do your skills and actions in meaningful sequences for success for that which you were put in front of to make a difference. The rewards of doing life well are many, but one of the unfortunate side trips for some is learning that money, once created, isn’t the destination to happiness…and for many that focus after perceiving that it was the destination, leaves them tired, spent, and oh so disappointed when the destination of “making it” shows up in the form of a bank account filled.
Our gifts are for others, to have the experience of making a difference in the lives of others…our gift to ourself.
What do you expect your journey to be? A fellow passenger on one of my trains whispered in closely at eighty that he was from the farm, and nothing, nothing came easy on the farm, to prepare for hard work, failed crops, and at the edge of success there may be harsh storms that take it all away. That precept colored his world and actions and I watched for thirty years while he simply lived them out in his entreprenurial world. What we think about we bring about is an old line that young sales people are encouraged with….however I have found that on the journey to success, what we think about determines where our success train stops, loops, and it sets the tone for the ride.
Personally I’d prefer my train to be a 1930’s dining car, well appointed and with food, dinner companions, and live music that simply makes every scene inside and outside the window something of a treasure to remember. Do you have music planned for your journey? Do you know what you seek your journey to have enroute to your success destination? My journey list includes:
- Waking up excited about how my life works
- Surrounding my personal work and life space with meaningful beauty, so I can rest my eyes on something that fills me
- Being able to help others create a more meaningful life for themselves, too
- To create and share in gatherings where we choose to see others and allow them to know us too
- Engaging in a community whose members participate in efforts to change difficulties in a meaningful way
- To surround myself with awareness of the value of multi generational thinking, to always seek to gain perspectives
- For my train to appreciate the expected and the unexpected and to gear my life so that a flow of activity always means a reduction in speed
- To identify, learn, and engage the gifts of beauty, art, music, fellowship, and service in every part of journey
- To love deeply myself and those who cannot love themselves yet….as I encourage them to know they are worth loving themselves just as they are.
- My husband Les would also share, that where ever my journey calls, there would be chocolate and amazing clothes, preferably that I had to shop for. 🙂
Sounds rather lofty doesn’t it? Your train might be more like the European bullet train, more focused on speed to destination than scenery enroute, however we each ultimately choose our own pace, scenes, and actions. What are you choosing on your journey to success? Trains have the ability to connect any type of car you choose for your quarters….what is important to you?
Are you ready to think through what it is you seek on your journey? The ticket runs out one day, and while you may exchange it for a new destination, you cannot change the past ones.
