The Goal And The Journey

We all aspire for success, though it can vary in its kind and degree for each one of us, and work our way towards it. For me, though reaching the goal successfully is often a cause for celebration, it is most important to ensure that the integrity of such a success can withstand the test of the time. One of the greatest realizations I have had in my life is to pay as much attention to the means of reaching the goal as to the goal itself, to ensure that the success lives longer with its integrity intact forever. When one focuses on the means and details of the process to ensure that a true and genuine success is achieved, it will also incessantly put one’s honesty, ethics, and values to test, which ultimately will define the strength of one’s character. 

I strongly believe that the desire for a true and life-long success is even more important in the current world, given the numerous instances we see of people trying to reach their goals be it in sports, business, politics, and various other fields, with such short-sighted approach that it eventually brings them dishonor and significant losses to many others. The ancient wise sages have proclaimed that the secret of the real success and its longevity lies in paying as much attention to the means as to the end. For us humans, a great drawback in life is that we are so much drawn to the end result, the goal is so much more enchanting, so much more alluring, and so much bigger in our mental horizon, that we lose sight of the details altogether. Analysis of disintegrated successes often reveals that the means of achieving the success were not paid enough attention. Proper attention to the strengthening of the means is what is required, since with the means alright, the result will eventually come. Once the goal is chosen and the means determined, we may almost let go of the goal from our mind, because the success will come when the means are perfected. The realization of the goal is the effect, while the means are the cause, and the attention to the means, therefore, is the great secret of real success in life.

When one makes a right decision at every junction in the path, not worrying much about any possible outcome and undaunted about the resulting challenges, it may lead to a longer and harder path but will invariably lead to the true success. This is the belief that matters to me most, and this is what the kind of person my kids should know and understand about me when they grow up, so that they can forever be proud of their dad.