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We've heard it for years. It's the journey. It's all about the journey.

But, man, can it be a LONG, monotonous road without any wildflowers to pick.

I have my own personal war against the journey. It CAN'T simply be about that.

There are process people and goal-oriented people. I'm naturally goal-oriented and surely that is meaningful, useful, and has its own path.

There is simply nothing better in the world than accomplishing a goal. The inspiration, the high, and then a new and different beginning.

When I first brought home my baby, fed, changed, and put her to sleep, I felt exhilarated. I had taken those tasks by the horns and completed them with gusto.

Within two hours, the process began AGAIN. No change. No newness. No sense of completion and moving on.

It's the repetition and monotony of the journey that bore me to tears.

But there's something else in the journey - moments of brilliance.

These moments allow us to spice it up when they leave us exhilarated, open, and living fully in the present.

But the brilliance may be only a singular moment. Many times, it's not even a full 30 seconds of brilliance as we slow down the BS flying at us and recognize the transformative nature of the moment.

Due to their brevity, or rather, the sh-- storm that usually occurs immediately after, we so often skate past these moments without acknowledgment or a backward glance. 

And that's a mistake, because it is precisely these extraordinary moments that transport us from our bland experience into something sublime. 

It is up to us to take these moments and blow them up in our experience as if they were all the journey was ever about.

Pay attention to THESE moments. Remember THEM. Ruminate on THEM. Create obsessions with finding more.

That is the one easy way we "live the greatest number of good hours," as Emerson suggests.

The more I'm in this, the more I see a need to capitulate in my personal war against The Journey. 

In fact, my goal-orientation was only ever about creating more extraordinary moments. That feeling of accomplishing a goal was only ever a moment, but a sublime one.

And now I realize that's not the only way to experience those types of moments. There are wildflowers all along the journey. I had always just skated past without acknowledgment or a backward glance.

Now I can start paying attention to the extraordinary moments that already occur all throughout the day. I can be present and stop time for a moment to luxuriate in them.

I do believe Emerson, Thoreau, and all the weighty ancient traditions - e.g. Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism - were right, after all ;)

It IS all about the journey and its brilliant little moments. 

P.S. If you're curious about a practice designed to help you relish those brilliant little moments, leave your email below, and I'll send it to you. Enjoy.

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