Happy March!! I don’t know about you, but my kids have already started thinking about elaborate ways to catch Leprechauns. They are desperately trying to convince me that we NEED to buy Lucky Charms cereal so that we can entice the Leprechauns to come to our house in the first place. (I think the very idea of having a sugary cereal in the house with actual marshmallows in it makes their little hearts jump for joy. Lol, sorry guys). But deep down, we all want just a little more luck on our side. We wear our lucky socks on gameday, kick face down pennies etc… However, if we’ve spent any time together, you’ll know that I don’t really believe in luck. I see everything as “lucky” because I’m looking for the good in every situation. Ah, a ladybug; that’s good luck! It’s a full moon; that’s good luck! Hey, there’s a new moon; that’s good luck! I truly believe that we make our own luck with hard work, discipline, and dedication. There is just no other way around it.
We have all heard the quote, “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” Ralph Waldo Emmerson is often credited with this quote, and while I can appreciate the sentiment, I just can’t fully get behind it. I do believe that we have to find the joy in whatever it is we are doing – the joy in the journey, but I don’t believe that the journey is always the focus. Sometimes the journey really stinks. BUT we ENDURE because we have our eye on the prize .. on that destination.
For example, law school was hard, but I wanted to be a lawyer. Lying on the beach with friends would have been much more fun than studying for the bar exam. Fertility treatments are hard, but you want to be a mom. There are times when it is the destination that allows us to persevere the difficult path it takes to get there. Someone who is working towards optimum health might have a really hard time cutting out sugar and logging miles on the treadmill, but being in good health is worth the sacrifice.
I am worried that we are raising a generation of kids who don’t fully appreciate the sacrifice and hard work required to achieve our dreams. They are so busy focusing on the journey, that the destination sometimes becomes lost. We make our kids pick weeds. You want a nice yard to play in, you pick weeds. You want to be good at soccer, go out and kick the ball 50 times a day. If you want to be a good student, you need to read and do your homework. I’m not saying that you can’t enjoy and appreciate the journey, but life isn’t always about the journey. I don’t know if my kids think that luck will magically make their dreams fall in their lap, but no amount of Lucky Charms will ever compensate for hard work and perseverance. If you’ve ever read interviews with people who dominated their field like Oprah, Michael Jordan, JK Rowling, Einstein, Dr. Seuss, and Henry Ford just to name a few, they all had a rough road but never gave up despite being told their products/talents were no good. They worked hard and focused on the destination. If it was about the journey and not the destination, we may not know their names today.
We want our kids to know that even when the journey is hard, the destination is worth it. The time you invest is worth it. We remind them that both their parents applied to graduate school twice to get where we wanted to go. We didn’t get in the first time, and we didn’t give up. We worked harder to make that goal a reality. So please, if you are going through a tough path in life, remember your why, remember your destination and focus on that. Keep going. It’s worth it .. and if you find a lucky penny, put it in your pocket.
May you catch all the leprechauns and your goals.
Wishing you focus and drive,
Angie + Dr. Cap