When I Grow Up...

We've all said it. "When I grow up I want to be a doctor, teacher, panda etc etc, fill in the blank". "When I grow up I'm going to dot dot dot fill in the blank". Or how bout this one - "When I grow up I'll be able to do whatever I want".  Ha.

I'm pretty sure everybody has at least thought about something they want to do in the future. I personally have a ton of ideas I'd like to see played out in my life eventually. Everyone has dreams and goals, even if they don't realize it. But is achieving a goal the ultimate point of life? Is the prime time of our lives - the time when we feel the most fulfilled in the pathway we've chosen to take - is that the epitome of life's awesomeness and meaning and then we die? What does fulfillment even look like? What does "I've finally made it" look like? What does having the family, the business, the career, the $$$$, the cars, the crib, the ministry, the friends, or the lifestyle look like? And once we get there is that it? We're done?

I've heard many times from many people that life is not about the destination but the journey. Don't compromise gaining from the present because of a vision for the future. Striving for that career or that family or that lifestyle is all fine, but are we giving up a sick life now because our heads are always in the clouds?! Well, guess what... that happened to me. Every time I was going through depression, I would tell myself the future will always be brighter and I would literally think about myself as a middle-aged woman with the perfect life and the perfect career and I thought that somehow thinking about this all the time was justifying my present "wallowing in the mud" behaviour that was stopping me from getting the most out of life. And highschool pretty much sucked some major balls.

So I encourage you to enjoy where you are now, whatever stage. It takes hard work in the present to achieve the things we want later anyways, and how much further do we want to push the manifestation of those things by putting off the effort it takes by having a "one day" mindset.

If life is about the journey, I'd hate to go to my grave knowing that I achieved a check-list of goals but had no fun getting there and had lost what was most important along the way. Deep stuff man.