Life is a Journey, not a Destination

This is a guest post from Henry Chapman, an accountant by experience and an adventurer by hobby. Henry approached me a few days ago with his idea for a blog post and his determination (the fact that he had already written the post) showed me that I had to pass it on. Enjoy his musings.

We as human beings enjoy setting and working towards goals. Be this a promotion at work, to lose weight or just learn something new.

But we very often make the mistake of thinking that once we have reached a goal, we will feel happy, satisfied and content. In my experience I always found that once I reach a goal, the satisfaction which comes from it fades very quickly and I am soon working towards the next goal I have set for myself.

I soon began to realise the momentary sense of achievement one feels from achieving a goal is not enough to work towards it - one needs to be enjoying the process as well. The process is where the real value lies in working towards goals. It is where one develops, learns and grows. The process shouldn’t be easy, but it should be enjoyable and rewarding. If it isn’t, then you are either approaching the process incorrectly or working towards the wrong goal.

So ask yourself the following question : “Am I enjoying the process of my day to day life?”. Make sure you do, because ultimately life is all about the journey, not the destination. 

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

The Fisherman and the Businessman

A friend posted a link to the amazing story about "The Fisherman and the Businessman" on Facebook yesterday and I immediately knew I had to re-post.

There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village.

As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish.

The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?”

The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.”

“Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was astonished.

“This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said.

The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?”

The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.”

The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman.

“I am a PhD in business management. I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other branches.”

The fisherman continues, “And after that?”

The businessman laughs heartily, “After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich.”

The fisherman asks, “And after that?”

The businessman says, “After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!”

The fisherman was puzzled, “Isn’t that what I am doing now?”

This is a classic Brazilian story posted on Paulo Coelho's blog. I remember having read it somewhere else a long time ago but I can't remember where. Have a great week everyone and evaluate what you currently have, maybe it's not very far from what you want to achieve.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis