Direction vs Destination
Have you seen the Netflix documentary Wild Wild country on the controversial Indian guru Shree Ragneesh (aka Osho)? It was indeed wild. I was amazed how the man had so many devout followers while seemingly living such a lavish non-guru’ish life. Recently I went to Barnes and Noble to browse for a new book and I came across Trust by Osho. I started reading the first couple pages and low and behold, I purchased the book. I’m not about to start dancing around screaming free love but there’s definitely some pieces worth reading.
You cannot decide direction, you can only live this moment that is available to you. By living it, direction arises.
I’m consumed with 5 year plans. By 30, I wanted to make a 6 figure salary. By 35, I wanted to have two children. By 40, I want to be VP. I focus so much on the goal that I think less about what path I should follow. Real life example — I am between 35 and 40 and no longer sure if I want the stress and workload of a VP in my industry. Do I follow my path because it was once my goal? Or should life be fluid enough where I make changes along the way?
Destination is fixed by the mind; direction is earned by living. Destination is logical; one wants to be a doctor, one wants to be an engineer…Direction? — one simply lives the moment in deep trust that life will decide.
Powerful, isn’t it? I have focused so much on the destination that I’ve forgotten about direction. Maybe life has something in store for me that will be more fulfilling than my original plan. Maybe I should trust that life will decide what will happen, and maybe I should have faith that things will work out the way they should.
Naval Ravikant said on the Joe Rogan podcast that the purpose of life isn’t some end goal but living life itself. This jives nicely with having the trust that life will decide what occurs. You simply have to trust that living spontaneously will take you there. While this relieves the pressure on having a vision for your life, I’m struggling with how this way of thinking affects goal setting and achieving. For someone like me who overthinks and causes herself anxiety, this approach to trusting life may work better. I guess I will just have to trust in myself and see.
