THE JOURNEY

Where are you going?

What do you hope to accomplish?

Are you doing any good at what you are doing?

Are you making a difference in the world?

Are you happy with your decisions?

 

We all have a journey to take in this lifetime. We all travel a different one though I think we generally want to be on the same one doing the same thing: doing good in the world.

This past week I learned a lot about journeys and destinations and reaching our end goal. The Wizard of Oz was referenced quite a bit this week as we sought out to discover for ourselves the road we were on and if we needed to make detours to be on the path we wanted to be on.

The path looks clear and easy but anyone who knows the movie knows it wasn't the easiest path to get to her destination. As I pondered this week about my path and the improvements I want to make on my path I discovered a few different things.

#1: Believe in Yourself- Believe that you can make a difference in yourself and in the world. Believe that you have the power to change your situation in life and believe that the future is bright as you put forth your effort to see the changes. I know I want a brighter happier future for myself and I also know it won't be an easy task to get there. But I do know if I hide behind fears and doubts then I will stay stuck in the same place with no progression in life.

#2: Positive Attitude- This has been a task I have been working at a lot lately and I know I am not perfect at it. But I discovered in more depth this week that the more you find the negative in something the more miserable you will seem to be. Since there will be bumps in our journey we will need to learn to roll with the punches and find something positive out of the situation. This past week demonstrated feelings of loss, feelings of insecurities, and feelings of not belonging. Even though those feelings were there I challenged myself to look beyond the uneasiness and to find the positives that were present. Each day I named off all the positives surrounding me and through that I had an excellent week. I had the opportunity to meet some great people, I enjoyed sunshine, rain, mountains, good food, and felt the Spirit numerous times throughout the week. There were bumps along the way but as I reacted positively to those bumps I was taught many valuable lessons that in turn are helping me discover new qualities and desires from within.

#3: Support System- Realizing the need of support in life is HUGE! Seeing the encouragement from others as you make changes in your life is the greatest feeling ever. I have been on a self improvement kick since January and I have loved and appreciated everyone who has stood behind me through it all. There have been amazing people who have prayed for me and have cheered me on and have sent encouraging text messages. This past week as I thought about their excitement and their encouragement it has helped me realize that I want more fulfillment on my journey through life and having them behind me has helped me find encouragement along my journey.

Just as Dorthy needed people along her journey to help her find her way, so do we. Yes, there is a lot I feel I can do on my own but it would be a sad world if I didn't have someone who believed in me as well.

Our journey in life isn't easy. I don't think it was meant to be easy. If life was easy what would we gain from it? Would we grow? Would we move forward? Would we prosper? Probably not. As we endure hard things with a positive outlook we will grow and the blessings from hard moments are so much sweeter. I look over my life and I know things happen for a reason and some times it is to move us in a direction that maybe our fears and insecurities are holding us back from going after. I was reminded this week that we are our hardest critics because we are so afraid of failure. But because we are so afraid of failure we don't give ourselves enough credit to go after something new, something challenging, something that could even be rewarding. We set ourselves up for failure before ever giving an idea a chance and in the end stop our journey from moving forward. It is time to believe in ourselves, reach for dreams, and know that in the end we will make it to our destiny on the journey of life and that this destiny will be the most rewarding thing of all because we believed in ourselves enough to make it happen.