Don't Enjoy The Journey.

Ralph Waldo Emerson. The man who coined the phrase: 'enjoy the journey, not the destination'.

Perhaps the one phrase that every online influencer will tell you to seem woke and relatable.

I think that's a bunch of bullocks.

Why Enjoyment is Unrealistic

It feels like that there's the one happy person in the office who is clearly going nowhere in life, but is adamant that this is just another step in the journey.

Even my own brother has told me to enjoy the process (basically the same thing) when it comes to exercise and fitness and not focus on results.

But I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person in the world who doesn't enjoy every single day. There are some really shit days.

Not saying I'm sad right now, far from it, I'm extremely happy.

Let me make my point through the use of an example; my job.

My time at my current job, which as of writing has been just over 1 year.

If we take the difference between the employee I was when I walked through those doors to the employee I am now, it's monumental. It echoes the difference of a price of a Freddo.

The journey I've been on has been immense! Have I enjoyed every single day of it? Absolutely not!

My company's website magically disappeared. Poof. Gone. It was pizza Friday, I left, got some pizza, came back to my desk, Uptime Monitor email in my inbox: WEBSITE DOWN. I thought, that's interesting, that shouldn't happen.

No one knew where it went. No. One. There's still fog over the whole situation to this day.

As a digital marketer, I must emphasise the absolute calamity and colossal amount of stress that was bestowed upon me.

I watched my year's worth of work wither down the drain every day it wasn't live. Did I enjoy that week or so? Did I bullocks.

I certainly wasn't in the mood for someone to tell me 'oh cheer up, it can't be that bad! It's all part of the journey haha lol smiley face...

I was not enjoying the journey.

But now I can look back at that period of time, realised how I handled it and learned a tonne of lessons from it:

1. Know who hosts the damn website

2. Alternative options to market, without an online presence

3. How to recover the website and ensure all of the SEO is correct

4. To remain as calm as possible when you can't do any work!

5. Trust in others to pull their weight, especially when it's your neck on the line.

Such value! Much enjoyment.

Don't Enjoy the Journey, But Be Proud Of It

I think a better saying that is certainly more realistic is not to enjoy the journey, but be proud of it.

Not every day will be sunshine and rainbows, but it's those very days that when you look back on those times and how you overcame those moments, it will be those triumphs that will be the foundation of your character.

Be proud of who you are, what you overcame and how you overcame it all. You don't need to enjoy it, but recognise how far you've come and be proud of what you've achieved.

On those down days, the last thing on your mind will be enjoyment. But after the storm has passed, allow yourself to be filled with an immense amount of pride.

That will be what spurs you on; to look back at yourself in another year, 5 years, 10 years and know that the journey you are on (whether enjoyable or not) has made you the person you are today.

Be proud.