Hey, good to see you again. Sit back, kick your shoes off and enjoy the story.

My grandmother passed away many years ago. She was a small, feisty lady with big heart and a wide smile. Always happy and optimistic, she had seen her family through lots of hard times. The older family members could remember her cooking, baking and helping tend the animals. They generally described her as a stocky blond lady with dancing blue eyes. She was even rumored to be stronger than most of the men – even the ones who helped with the harvest every year. The younger ones like me could only recall a slight lady with a blue-white puff of hair folded neatly into a rocking chair. But even then she still had those dancing eyes.

On the day of her 80th birthday we held a big party celebrating her life. We all were there; young and old, big and small. It was fun, as most parties are, with lots of laughter, food and drink. We all sat around the big table in the garden and told our stories about Grandma and how she had done this and that.

My young cousin listened intently to all the stories and sighed. ‘I want to be just like you when I’m old, Grandma. I want to be just as happy.’ Grandma smiled and her dancing blue eyes flashed, ‘Don’t wait ‘til you’re old like me’, she said, ‘if you want to be happy when you’re old, then you need to start being happy right now.’

Grandma is, of course, right.

We tend to think of life as an end result; in terms of the goals we set for the future. We tend to think that as soon as we reach this goal, or achieve that goal, then we’ll be successful; then we’ll be happy. We forget, however, that success and happiness really are more about here and now then they are about later. Success and happiness are not the destination, they’re the journey.

They’re determined by the way we live our lives, not just where we land.

The things we focus on during our everyday life tend also to be the things that grow, increase and expand in our lives. Things like frustration, unhappiness, stress and loneliness can easily become our focus – even when we’re pursuing higher goals – and can begin to weave themselves into the fabric of our lives. Things like happiness, openness and appreciation can also be our focus – all which help us reach our higher goals – and will begin to color our lives with their offspring: opportunity and satisfaction.  Through our thoughts, productive and non-productive, empowering and disempowering, we create our mental habits and these habits determine the chances we perceive, the decisions we make and actions we take.

And this determines our present and our future.

This daily focus will determine more about who we really are and where we’re going than all long-term goals put together. In fact, this daily focus will determine whether we are able to reach our long-term goals or not – and, more importantly, will determine the quality of our life while we are on the road to achieving them.

It’s not just about where we’re going, it’s about how we get there.

Happy traveling,
Lisa

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