January 10, 2024
The journey as a destinationThe steps to reach your goal are actually more important than reaching your goal
While travelling, it is interesting to look at fellow travellers. We are not the average people on holidays, having been on the road for so long. We notice how calm we are. Many are on their way to the destination, thinking only of the goal, their final destination. While everything can be experienced along the way… Many seem to forget that. And this is not only true during holidays, even in daily life everything seems to be focused on goals. But is that really what it’s all about? Or do we forget the most important thing?
Stuck in the rat race
People who arrive at the campsite late, leave very early… No time to enjoy themselves a little longer, but need to ‘go-go-go’. On to the next place. Or people who arrive at a dream spot, stay in their campervan, don’t go out and leave again the next day and see their overnight stay solely as an overnight stay, not as a place where there is something to see and experience. While there are also people who chose that very same spot for a holiday, so there is indeed something in that place.
So this observation brings home to me how most people live:
- The alarm clock that rings every day
- Getting up quickly, having breakfast
- If there are children, then it’s rush hour all the way
- Then quickly get in the car or on the bike to school/work or another obligation – can even be sport or other appointments
- Do your task
- Have lunch
- Do your task
- Hurry back home. Maybe do some shopping on the way.
(Pick up kids?) - Cook and eat
(Putting children to bed) - Sports – household
- Going to bed
Only to repeat the pattern the next day.
This is called stuck in the rat race.
Letting your life be led by the clock
Waking up naturally is out of the question. Nor is adapting to the seasons.
The clock rules the daily schedule.
At some point in my life, quite some time ago, I made a conscious decision not to wear a watch anymore.
Although I often chose a watch that was also a beautiful piece of jewellery. And that piece of jewellery was missing on my wrist from then on.
The mobile phone became the replacement. But less and less present.
There I had to press a button to see the time.
Not constantly knowing what time it was.
I noticed that this was already doing something. Being less in control of the time.
But I’m sure you understand: Since we resigned our jobs and started tavelling, our concept of time has drastically changed.
Yes, every day has a date
Yes, through the opening hours of shops, we need to know which day it is, but other than that, we can let go of the concept of time.
The concept of time and travelling seem to belong together
The group of holidaymakers who drive at night just to get to their destination as fast as possible is large. Often, under the guise of the children….
But children also simply project your ideas and expectations. If you think that trip will be immensely long, so it will be.
But why do you actually need to get to your destination in 1 day?
Why not enjoy the journey?
From looking for a place where you get your breakfast/lunch, from driving along the way, from stopping at a nice spot where you make a nice cup of tea/coffee and stretch your legs for a while. Up to 4 hours of driving and then coming back to a new place where you can continue enjoying. Go to a terrace. Or the swimming pool. Whatever the place offers where you ended up (or chose).
Half days and sense of time
In the publishing world, a full-time working week of 36 hours applies. In reality, most work 5 days one week, 4 days the next. I followed that example. But I soon discovered that I always dreaded working 5 days in a row. I decided to switch to working 4.5 days every week. To my surprise, I really liked this. On the half-days (Friday), I came home and still had plenty of time to do other things. Which almost made me forget that I had also worked in the morning.
That same effect, we notice now with travelling. If we travel only a few hours a day, there is still so much time to do other things… Travelling does not become a burden. It becomes part of the day. Has its beautiful moments. And when we arrive at a place, we can take a (beach) walk, sit outside, enjoy the place. Or just go out. Just whatever feels right at the time. We don’t set an alarm clock when we move on. We can wake up naturally even then.
If you do what you like, eat well, get enough exercise, you sleep well and you can’t even sleep 10 hours. That’s only in the early days, when you have to get used to a natural rhythm and recover from the pressure and stress… I think that’s a ‘side effect’ of unwinding, of calming your life… That you have to sleep a lot. Literally need to rest. Recovering.
Other ways of destinations
A destination can also be any other goal. Could be something you reached, a dream you realised, something you purchased or something you did…
Even when you are on your way to other goals, most of the time there were multiple steps: People you met at the right time, you booked something, you got an idea in, you did something as an inspired action….
And whatever step you take is always the right one for you at that moment. Hindsight is always twenty-twenty 😉
So what if your journey is your destination?
That you get to enjoy truly EVERYTHING that comes your way? There is no such thing as good or bad. Neither is something ‘positive’ or ‘negative’. It is the connotation we give it ourselves. It is nothing more than a step. It may be a step that leads to a d-tour, but that is not bad or negative. You obviously need that route then. But also an experience. All those steps together ensure that you reach your destination.
With travel, that destination is very clear… You arrive at a campsite, park at a cottage and that’s it. At least, in most cases. Sometimes there is an accident along the way, and you don’t arrive at your holiday destination.
Then was little to enjoy!!
Often we ‘forget’ our goal, our destination… Because we get closer and closer, so that it almost becomes obvious and logical that your destination is reached with a next step.
What if you did not enjoy the steps along the way? That you didn’t conciously take them and lived them? Because when you reach your goal it hardly is an euforic moment, because you grew into that goal. Into reaching your destination. And you probably had already set out plenty of other new goals?
Then in the end, you didn’t enjoy anything really!
That’s why the past few days the words come to me: What if the journey IS the destination?
That every stap to get to your destination is a destination in itself?
A euforic moment? A conciously chosen moment?
What if you know where you’re going, and will enjoy EVERYTHING that comes on your way?
At least you’ll have an awesome journey and you’ll feel relaxed when you reach your destination ❤️
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