Look at Where You’re Going, Not at Where You Are

It’s easy to feel worthless when things aren’t happening as fast or as promising as we expect. We work hard, play hard, and pray for destiny to reveal itself, but life pans out in unexpected ways. The road ahead will always be unwritten.

Every last one of us can say we aren’t where we want to be. That’s humanity—we strive for more. We continuously push ourselves to higher standards. Whether it has to do with our career, finances, relationships, health or objects, we always want more (or better).

Where we are is not where we’re going.

Many of us make the mistake of judging our present circumstances at face value. We think this is the best we’ll have—what’s the use of climbing?

I know I’ve spent too many years moping around my apartment waiting for my destiny to come knocking. When it didn’t, I blamed it on bad timing, lack of focus, even the world and all its fallacies. While I was birthing negativity around myself, I was neglecting to create new waves of opportunity to escape towards.

I’ve never been a spiritual person. I mean, I’ve definitely done the yoga thing, preached about staying present and appreciated the universe and all its energy, but I also knew that destiny isn’t preordained. It must be fought for. I trusted that hard work would undoubtedly pay off, so I kept at it.

The thing that keeps us going should never be to “stay afloat.” That’s where many of us fall into a pit of despair because at that point we’re not living to progress. We’re living for stagnancy. If we aren’t evolving in any way, we feel useless.

Human beings are meant to grow and progress from our shells, but in today’s world everyone is throwing each other under the bus, making us insecure about our own potential.

Progression, even at a slow pace, gives us a feeling of accomplishment. It fuels us to continue. Little by little, as we evolve from where we were the week, month or year before, we’re reminded we’ve always been in control.

No matter where we are in life, it’s about where we’re going, not at where we are. What do we want to accomplish? What is it that we want to achieve? What kind of person, life or experience do we want to have and feel? These are things that should fuel us—not our present circumstance. That’s only temporary.

We create our own destiny.

The present will always be changed, and since our future is affected by our present, our life can’t help but evolve from there. That’s the beauty of free will. But too often we think broadly, assuming we’re part of a bigger picture. Whatever is “meant to be” or written in the stars will ultimately play out.

Not for nothing, but the truth is we create our destiny. Nothing is predestined. We are the controllers of our fate. Knowing that, we ought to take ourselves more seriously rather than waiting around for the universe to tell us what we already know.

Depending on destiny or the universe to do the work for us is a lazy way of thinking. We do it so we can feel better about our circumstance, but it ultimately distracts us from making proper decisions.

We are the writers of destiny. Our destiny is written not by the universe, but by our choices. In order to make proper ones, we must rely on our intuition – our moral compass.

If we aren’t plugged in to a vision, our gut will never be in tune with ourselves. So let’s get back into the groove.