It really is about the journey…

by Robert Meagher on 04/01/15

“…it really is about the journey, and not the destination.”

Last month’s e-newsletter departed from the norm whereby my opening piece shared some exciting news with you. I will now share a teaching directly related to that ‘exciting news.’

Last month did see me launch the Sacred Attention Therapy Online Training. What the experience taught me, however, was that it really is about the journey, and not the destination.

When I began working on the online training initiative, I remember feeling like I was embarking on an expedition to climb a very tall mountain. Let’s use the almost-mythical Mount Everest for our example.

When I was first approached about embarking on the adventure (i.e., developing the online training course), I was honored and excited, but I was speechless, somewhat dumbfounded, and terrified. “Where does one even BEGIN with such a huge undertaking?,” I remember saying to myself, like with any adventure of this magnitude—of any adventure, actually— “the adventure begins with one step.” This teaching is reminiscent of the wise old saying… “the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”

Given my background as a university professor (giving me the skills to develop curriculum), my background in business (giving me the skills to put this together and offer it as a service), and my technology skills (allowing me to use various technologies to produce and deliver the education, online), I had everything I needed to bring this together. But it just felt SO daunting!

I remember near the beginning of the journey…it felt like I was standing at the base of Mount Everest. I started to gaze upwards in the sky...to the summit of the great mountain. My neck was wrenched from having to gaze up so high! I can remember thinking to myself, in the context of the great task that lay ahead of me… “You have GOT to be kidding me!!!”…as I nervously point to the summit of Mount Everest… “You want ME to get to the top of THAT mountain???!!!”

“Oh dear GOD!...WHAT have I gotten myself into???!!!”…were my initial thoughts. “Why did I say yes to this crazy adventure???!!!”

But we start our adventures, don’t we? We take a step. And then we take another step. And at some point we realize the start line is far behind us, yet the summit of the mountain remains far off in the distance…still way too far to seem like a realistic goal. Such was the case at a point in production of the online training…

I had completed 10-15 of the 38 lectures (for Level 1 online training). By this point in the lecture production, the intensity of the endeavor was ‘full throttle.’ I remember having a vision…

I was standing on a ledge—more like clinging to the side of Mount Everest!!!—and I took a moment to pause and look upwards toward the summit. It still seemed SO far away…, and yet I felt like I had been climbing for a lifetime!

Then…I looked down—something I had not done yet in the climb. I froze…from fear!!!

I was SO far off the ground. I had been focused so much on the climbing I had not even noticed how far I had come. I remember thinking…

“The summit still seems like something I will never attain…but I’m way too far up the side of this mountain to consider going back down. So…keep on keepin’ on.”

And the climb continued…

As each lecture was produced, the half-way point loomed in the distance. And when I finally reached that half-way point in the lecture production (19 of 38), the energy of the experience shifted. I started to believe I would…some day…get there.

As the weeks of intense, dedication unfolded, the summit came more and more into focus. And as the summit came within reach, I remember starting to realize that all along this was about my journey up the mountain and NOT about reaching the summit (i.e., completing the lectures and launching the online training).

Don’t get me wrong…to complete the production and actually launch the online training was a monumental achievement and one worth celebrating. However, what I learned along the way is FAR more important than actually reaching the summit. It IS the journey that gets us to the summit. Once at the destination, the learning…well, the learning stops.

I think we so often—I know I did, and still do—get lost in the pursuit of the finish line, the goal, the end destination. Well, I have news for you…

There is no finish line, no goal, no end destination. There is only what we are doing in this very moment. And our peace and joy is in THAT very moment, not in a perceived moment that we envision coming, or one that we think we experienced in the past.

It really is about the journey, not the destination. For there is only journey, and no destination.

In love, gratitude, compassion and forgiveness…

Shanti, Namaste, Agapé,