I don’t know if it’s because I’m a fiery Aries, or perhaps because my Mercury is in Taurus, but when I have my eyes set on a destination, I tend to be unwavering in my pursuit of it. I literally wouldn’t rest until I felt some sort of satisfaction about how close I was to the end game (during grad school this led to too many unnecessarily sleepless nights of writing paper after paper, because I couldn’t rest until I got to the ridiculously high-achieving and perfectionistic “natural” pause point, with which I could continue from the following day – and reminder, I was always finished with a paper at least one week before it was actually due).
As I slid into my late twenties, I took my blinders off a bit and became the sort of “it’s about the journey, not the destination” kind of person. But not really… I still very much kept my eyes on the destination and wouldn’t rest until I got there, but at least I started looking around and enjoying the path a bit more. It was a lot more enjoyable to see what else was going on around me as I plugged along, but I still had a very narrow focus as to what I was trying to achieve.
I certainly wouldn’t have said that at the time. But now having been traveling for the past 8 months, man what a fresh perspective I have on my old self.
So here’s been the progression:
Focus on the destination and get there, damn it!
To
It’s about the journey, but still maintain focus on the destination
To
Screw the destination, let’s see what happens along the journey
At this point, my lived experience has been that I have an idea of where I want to go, but it never fails, along the way there, something else happens. A road is closed, a detour happens, I talk to someone who gives me an even better idea, I find a place I wasn’t even looking for but ended up being better than the one I was trying to find.
Life in every moment now becomes this delicious Marco Polo game with the Universe. I yell out Marco (my original destination), and I just wait for the Universe to say Polo and I undoubtedly end up going in a different, far better direction. I trust deep within myself that the direction I’m being sent in is more delightful and abundant than what I could have picked out for myself. And the Universe absolutely never fails to delight.
