Food for Thought: "Success and the Process"

I was cleaning out my laptop case and I found a scrap of paper, torn from a discarded envelope. I had hastily written some things on it, and I read it before I threw it away.

It had a couple of things written on it.

"Darkness thickened into night" and "Bewitched by her honeyed speech".

Hmm. I have a tendency to write down little phrases on scrap pieces of paper, and I later transfer those phrases to a small baby blue suede journal that I keep solely for things I may use in my writing and don't want to forget.

Now, I may or may not remember where I got the little things I write down from. I know I got the first two phrases from my Message bible, somewhere in Proverbs.

But, I'd also written something else on that scrap envelope.

"Success is in the process, and if you don't quit you will succeed."

I got the "Success" phrase off of some PBS station, I believe. All I know, I was cleaning up my room, picked up the remote to change channels, and heard someone say that.

I've always maintained, and this phrase proves it to me, that it's not all about achieving your goal. It's about what you learn along the way.

Why is it that, when we go for our goals, there is usually a whole lot of blood, sweat, and tears involved? (In other words, why is it that we go through what seems to be so much craziness in the process of "reaching the finish line", i.e., obtaining the goal?)

And if we reached our goals with no effort... what would be the point of that?

This phrase made me think back to many of the goals I've set for myself. Some I reached, and some I didn't. I must admit, most of the goals I didn't reach... well, I caved in and quit. I attribute this to just being young and not knowing to keep moving forward. In other cases, the goal was something that I wasn't even suppose to have, and things fell through (thankfully).

But in all the goals I've attained in my life, I have learned something important:

I learned much in the journey to said goal, than from reaching the goal. In going through the "process", many things happened. I solved personal problems. I came up with new ideas. I met new people who supported me, or had the same goal. My faith was reinforced and strengthened. I learned much about my strengths and weaknesses. And no telling what else positive happened on that journey... If I spent more time thinking about it, the list would be soooo long.

THAT'S where the real success is: everything you learned on the journey, while going through the process.

Does that make any sense? (It does to me.)

So, here's to YOU reaching your goals. And all that you learn along the way, in the process of obtaining your goal.

Don't quit. That process, all you go through to reach that goal, is exceedingly important.

Don't quit... keep moving forward along your path.