Wealth Building Wednesday: Where I've Been
Finding joy in the journey, not just the destination.
Sorry it’s been a few days since you’ve heard from me! I’ve been busy making some tough but exciting decisions. In addition to recently losing my job, dealing with depression, and learning that a close friend has terminal cancer, I received another disappointing piece of news last week.
While I would have loved to have passed, I’m grateful to have learned from yet another failure. Life is full of difficult experiences, as I’m sure you’re well aware. But when things are hard is when we grow the most.
So why am I telling you all this?
Well, first I want you to know that, although it sounds like my life is perfect, that’s far from the case.
Secondly, this means I am going to be switching to more of a weekly publishing schedule for this newsletter.
Yesterday I dropped nearly $1,300 on a course to guide me as I study. I am desperate to make sure that my second attempt at this test is successful. Paying this money was a way of scaring myself into devoting the time and energy needed to pass.
It’s that effort I previously put into publishing this newsletter every day that I will reserve mostly for studying for my test for the next few months.
I had to look long and hard at what I wanted, and although I love writing more than engineering, I just couldn’t live with myself if I quit.
While we applaud those who sacrifice everything for their dreams and make it, sometimes we have to make the hard decisions to delay our passions just a little longer so it can all work out just right.
That’s where I’m at now. I made this decision for my family, and I’m happy about that. I also look forward to learning to be persistent as I continue forward. A little sacrifice now will, as I’ve calculated, prove to one day give me the time and energy I want to put into my passions.
So what do I want to teach you from this experience?
Sometimes life doesn’t work out exactly the way you want. Most of the time, things don’t go how you plan. The secret isn’t to set bigger, loftier, grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side goals. It’s in learning to enjoy the journey.
“Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey, and share our love with friends and family. One day each of us will run out of tomorrows.”
—Thomas Monson
The reason I’m finding so much peace about failing the exam was because I realize that I’m not going to be happy passing the test someday if I’m not happy with myself now.
So I decided to look instead at all the things in my life that are making me happy every day and focus on those.
What are you working towards right now? Maybe you’re trying to lose weight, increase your income, or become more selfless, just like I am. Whatever it is, don’t see your goal as crossing a finish line. Recognize that happiness and success come when we learn to love the process, every day, even if and when it’s boring.
Actionable Advice: What’s one thing you’re doing right now that you really don’t like? Is there a way you can slow down and learn to love the process of doing it. Can you delegate it to someone else? You may even be able to pay someone else to do that thing you hate. Explore how you can find joy in the little moments each day, rather than just looking ahead for happiness in the future. Journal about what you discover.