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It's The Journey

It's January. My favorite month of the year.

NOT!

Truth be told - it's my most dreaded month of the year. Working as an HR/Business administrator guarantees that my January runneth over with IRS-imposed deadlines. In addition, in January, we're pushing to close out the old year, so we can adjust our budget numbers and spending plan accordingly. There are also a myriad of changes to payroll with the start of a new year as well as donation letters and giving records to get out. That's just a short list of extras that fall on top of my to-do pile this month. For the past twenty years, I have begun every new year longing for the first thirty-one days to be over. I love where I work and the people with whom I work. I really do, but it's still work. I dream of quitting my day job, so I can write full time. I long for it. I'm envious of my writer-friends who get to do just that (though they are few and far between).

As I sat down to work on my novel this afternoon, I opened up a newsletter to ease me in the transition from numbers to words. Within fifteen minutes, I'd read two articles and a blog about the often discouraging process of writing and being published.

In the first article, the author dissected her writing/publishing history. She mentioned the goals she had set for herself along the way. With each goal, she'd think, "once I _______ (get published, have a bestseller, sell a series, etc)," this will get easier. I'll have reached "it." With each goal obtained, she was sorely disappointed. In her thirty plus years of writing, she's learned that the only goal that is fully rewarding is that of loving the journey itself.

The second article was a confession of writer-envy. Hearing of other authors' successes, made the writer of the article jealous and frustrated. The cure? Don't compare your journey with anyone else's. Love your journey.

The blog I read? You guessed it. Another take on the same theme: it's the journey that matters.

So as I sit here and wish thirty-one days of my life away; as these days of January swirl around me in tumultuous, over-whelming, work, I'm reminded, not for the first time in my life that it's not always about the goal. I confess that I am all too often so focused on where I'm headed that I miss the beauty, the music, the aromas, the flavors, the textures, the friends, and most importantly, the grace, that paves the path along my way.

My cousin posted his new year's resolution on his Facebook wall: I read that a new year's resolution should be one that you can realistically keep so I resolve to drink more beer, eat more junk food, and get less accomplished!!! (Thanks, Mark, I hope you don't mind that I used it!)


I may not be able to drink more beer (I don't like it) or eat more junk food (I have too many food allergies), but I think I can get less accomplished if I resolve to treasure the journey more than the destination.



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