Life Is a Journey, Not a Destination

The notion of time and the role that it plays in our lives. When you’re younger, you feel like you have all the time in the world to do whatever you want. The notion of death and seeing your time on his earth being limited is far from a priority as you are blinded by your goals, your challenges. You listen to “old people” reminiscing about the past, or become philosophers, and you’re thinking that they’re out of touch with today’s society. But while it may seem that way, it’s so far from the truth.

Music brings a lot of good memories and there have been countless amazing lyrics out there over the years. One of my favourite lines, however, comes from the rock band Aerosmith, when composer Richard Supa and lead singer Steven Tyler wrote, in the hit “Amazing”: Life is a journey, not a destination. Truth be told, the original quote is credited to a Unitarian minister turn poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, way back in the early to mid-1800s.

You see, your life isn’t about you going somewhere as no matter where the future leads you, there will be somewhere else to be. It doesn’t matter which way you are going in your journey through life, you will never know when you will have reached your final destination. And that destination is not a goal. What truly matters, is for you to enjoy what is around you during that journey, in your every day life.

Waiting life away

As we get older, we realize that we are waiting our life away. Every single stage in our life, we “can’t wait” for something and we too often hang our hopes on a better future. In the meantime, our life doesn’t stop. Our clock is ticking but yet, we are too busy to realize it.

I can’t wait to be done high school…

I can’t wait to get a job…

I can’t wait to have my own apartment…

I can’t wait to the weekend…

I can’t wait to be done university, to make money…

I can’t wait to have car…

I can’t wait to have a boyfriend/girlfriend…

I can’t wait to get married…

I can’t wait to have kids…

I can’t wait to have a better paying job or a promotion…

I can’t wait for the kids to be out of the house…

I can’t wait for retirement…

I can’t wait to travel…

I can’t wait to be done paying my mortgage…

I can’t wait to… oops, too late, you don’t have your health anymore. You then realize that you have spent your life waiting instead of living. You have been waiting your life away.

Value of time

All of this wasted time, often times for money, for luxury and sometimes, even just to keep up with the Jones. But that money, have you actually ever stopped to put a price on it?

Think about this for a second. You think that you are paying for goods and services with money, right? In reality, you are paying for everything with time. You are paid by the hour or by salary. You work(ed) countless hours to get the income that you have. Ultimately, you have paid, and are still paying everything that you want or need, with time.

You work 40 hours a week, or almost 2,100 hours a year. Say you make $40,000 a year. You go out and buy a $40,000 car. That means that your car will have cost you almost 2,100 hours of your time at work in order to pay for that car, not counting interest if you borrowed to pay for it. That’s over 2,000 hours that you haven’t spent “living life”. And that’s just for a car that will depreciate, no other expenses…

You see, the cost of time is so much more than the hourly rate that you get. The time that you have spent away from your family, the time that you did not spend on yourself and your own wellbeing, the time to life your life to its fullest, the time that it has taken over your health (both physical and emotional). What price do you put on that?

So when you’re looking at the price of something, turn that mindset around a bit and wonder… how much time are these goods or services worth to you?

The moment is now

Remember: you work for a living, you don’t live to work. My own grand-father worked all of his life to provide for his family. At age 65, he finally retired. Days after his retirement party, he had his first stroke. He had to relearn to speak, to walk. A few months later, he wasn’t as lucky as a second stroke marked the end of his journey.

Remember that a hurst is never followed by a Brinks truck. Don’t give your life for an employer whom, if something was to happen to you, will replace you in a heartbeat. And they all do, no matter how valuable you think you might be, or how well or poorly they treat you.

Live your life today, as if it was your last day. Change that mindset of yours by realizing now what most people realize in their 50s, 60s or even later. Take time for yourself and your loved ones. Get married or live with someone you love if that’s what you want, but don’t forget to enjoy your together time. Have children if that’s what you wish, but enjoy every moment with them. Make friends and do things together. Save for travels, if you’re into that, and take the time to do it. Create memories as later in life, that’s what you will remember most.

You know those “old people” in your life? Their time on this earth is counted and no one knows – themselves included – how long they have ahead of them. They can be here today, and not tomorrow. It’s just a matter of how soon “tomorrow” is. By then, it will be too late to enjoy your time with them.

I am fortunate to have learned that now, with a woman that I truly love. But I do know that time is ticking so I wake up every day, grateful to be able to see the sun rise, look at the mountains in front of me, and I never go to bed without telling her how much I appreciate her, how much I love her. My journey is not over but when it is, at last I will be able to say that I have enjoyed what came along with it. I just wish I would have grasped that concept much, much younger.