“It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.”

How often have you heard or read any number of iterations on this theme? It’s a common enough saying, often touted by business leaders, fitness professionals, and self-titled “life coaches.”

(Honestly, wtf is a life coach?)

The idea is simple enough to understand: it’s the experience gained en route to arrive at the destination that matters more than the destination itself. There’s nothing challenging in that premise. The logic isn’t difficult, it’s the application. You set a goal to run a marathon, and your training begins. It’s easy enough to say you want to get up and run every morning; it’s far more difficult to execute on getting up to run every morning, especially if you’re new to training. And this process remains difficult if there’s no enjoyment in it. You struggle to wake every morning and run, and when the day arrives and you run your marathon, that’s the end of it all. You have arrived at your destination. Forget about continuing on.

Except, there’s more to arriving at the destination, isn’t there? Something happened to your body and your mind during the process of forcing yourself to get up every morning and run. You’ve fundamentally changed how your body processes food. You’ve altered your body composition in a beneficial way. Your mood is different. Your perceptions have shifted. Running the marathon didn’t do that. Getting up every morning to run did that.

You can apply this to anything. Spend 100 days learning to code and you change the way you approach problem solving. Spend 100 days learning to write and you change the way you reflect on your own thoughts and behaviors. Learn and practice any new thing for long enough, and you change some psychophysiological aspect of yourself. You don’t even have to like the process. You just have to show up for it.

Though, the process is better if you do come to enjoy and appreciate it.

THE ART

There’s plenty to distract you on whatever journey you set yourself on. It’s your focus and dedication that will get you to where you are going. However, it’s important to recognize that it’s your focus and dedication, your adherence to the journey that will ultimately benefit you. Remain cognizant of your practice and you’ll gain ever so much more from the work than the destination could ever offer.

You can collect this NFT here.