Some people think life is all about how much we accomplish.
Or how quickly they get to their goals.
Maybe it is all about becoming an executive.
Or perhaps about selling their startup.
They think about how quickly they can become a millionaire.
After that, it is all about making ten times that much.
We sometimes feel that if we have not achieved massive success as quickly as we can we have somehow failed.
Yet we don’t realize that going after our goals is only one aspect of life.
In fact, it may not even be the most important aspect of life.
What about our family and our friends?
Relationships are not something to check off a list.
Indeed, perhaps the greatest aspect of life is how resilient we are able to become.
Or how connected we are to our community.
Climbing the highest mountain may be a noble desire.
Yet we often forget to think about what we will do should we become injured along the way.
We rarely consider how we would respond to a tragedy to a great loss.
For life is not a straight line or a linear path.
It is filled with ups and downs, and many moments when we move sideways.
Our long term plans often fall by the wayside for something more important to us.
Maybe a relative health issues end up taking us in totally different direction.
Or an accident that causes us permanent physical damage.
In the end, it’s not how high we go or how fast we get there, but how well we bounce.
And who we bounce with.
We all hit the bottom sometime.
Do we stay there, or get back up?
How we deal with the unexpected tells more about us than how well we live up to our plans.
Yet we make our goals more important than how we live our lives.
When in all consideration, the opposite is true.
How we live our lives is not only more important, it is everything.
If we look at how we show up everyday, day in and day out, that is where the real prize is.
In all the little moments we get to spend on this earth.
With the people we love and care about.
Doing the things we love to do.
The experience of walking in the woods or swimming in the ocean.
Seeing the beauty of the world and feeling what it is like to just be home.
It may not all feel good.
And those times are equally important.
For life is lived in each of those little moments that add up to life.
We run, we jump, we trip, we fall, and we bounce all the time.
How well we bounce and get back up off the ground says volumes about us.
So where are you concentrating more on the goals than on the journey?
How can you live life more in the moment and cultivate your bounce?
~ Sam Liebowitz, The Conscious Consultant