Life isn't about the destination. It's about the journey.

​In writing about healing yesterday, I think I landed on my word for 2022.

It's JOURNEY.

Yesterday, I dismissed the idea of a place called 'healed' as a final destination - as an ideal - and in doing so, I was reminded just how much final destinations can stand in my way of living. Much like imagining a place called healed stands in the way of healing.

The more we focus straight ahead on destinations, the more we miss out on the beauty lining the sides of the roads that's taking us there. The more we get to looking ahead to that destination and thinking - I'm not there yet - the more we can get to wondering - why keep going at all?

I think it's good to have destinations in life. Targets are helpful. But I also know this about targets. We don't always hit them. In fact, I think hitting them might even be rare.

Today, I don't live where I was aiming for.

I don't do the job I was aiming for.

Shoot, I have two kids that I sure wasn't aiming for.

I guess when you get committed to the journey more than the destination, you discover beauty in life landing off target. And in time, I believe, discover life never really gets off target at all.

Off target is something we create in our minds. It's a way for us to celebrate I made it, or beat ourselves up for not getting there.

More and more I wonder just how much of life is about getting there. More and more I wonder if the point isn't more about going there than getting there.

Maybe destinations are simply a motivation to get us out of bed in the morning. The motivation life uses to keep us going so life can show us the magic that happens when we get off track. The motivation life uses to show us life is about the journey, not the destination.

As we wind down the last days of 2021, many of us are thinking about where we want to go next year. Again, I do think there is some value in that.

But I know often those plans get shattered in the first months of a new year. The destination that was once exciting and hopeful - it begins to feel as distant as last year's destinations became.

Maybe more than deciding where you want to go, decide to get up every single day and get going. Commit to a good direction. Go with love and with generosity. Point yourself toward beauty and simply trust that will be the right way.

In doing so, you won't guarantee yourself of getting there. But maybe this will be the year you discover getting there was never the point at all.

The journey was.