It’s remarkable that three (seemingly) unrelated events can have such a singularly profound impact on the way you think; yet that is exactly what happened this past week.
1) Heart-to-heart chat at work: Last Friday after a couple of incidences wherein (in an effort to make an impression) I inadvertently overstepped my bounds, my manager took me aside, and with the calm assuredness of a big brother told me something that I won’t soon forget: “Akash, though no one questions your passion, if you want to live up to your lofty aspirations, you must learn how and when to use it. Sometimes the best way to [achieve your goals] is to take a step back and play your role – as unglamorous as that may be.”
In other words: by focusing on the process, you will invariably be able to see the desired result.
2) Trying to make new friends: That night one of my closest buds from college, who happened to be in the Bay Area for the weekend, asked me to spend a couple of days with him and some of his high school friends at a beach house in Monterey. Not having seen him for ages, and not wanting to be a drag, I decided to tag along – even if the prospect of spending two nights with 12 strangers, all of whom had a long history with one another, was somewhat intimidating.
Though the trip ultimately ended up being a blast (I met quite a few genuine folks), I couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed on the way home. Part of me (the part of me that sets unyielding standards) felt as though I had not been as engaging as I could have been; while another part of me (the part that has yet to grow up), felt as though I had not been the kind of focal point I should have been.
So again, instead of being grateful for the weekend that I had (i.e. the process), I found myself brooding over the opportunity I had missed (i.e. the result).
3) Pixar’s Up (spoiler alert!): Finally a few days ago, I decided to go check out Pixar’s Up in theaters.
In one of the film’s more poignant moments (and there are many), the protagonist, Mr. Fredrickson, having at long last achieved his dream of traveling to “Paradise Falls” slumps into a chair emotionally and physically exhausted. Exhaling, he reluctantly opens his late wife’s adventure scrapbook and begins flipping through the pages – painfully and acutely aware of the fact that she isn’t there to share (in what was supposed to be) their accomplishment.
Unable to go on, he stops short of the section entitled “Things I want to do” (a section he had long presumed to be reserved for moments like these) and makes to shut the book for good. However as he does, a funny little thing happens: he catches a glimpse of a picture he hadn’t seen before.
Perplexed (and slightly scared of what he might see), Carl takes a deep breath and turns the page.
To his utter astonishment, he discovers that his wife hadn’t left the section blank at all. Rather, picture after picture, page after page, she had filled it with snapshots of their life together. Small, simple memories that together had amounted to the greatest adventure of all: their marriage.
Thus, sentiment aside, if there is anything that I have come to realize in the past week and a half it is that oftentimes the journey is just as, if not more important than the destination itself.
Embrace it. Even if it’s not the one you wished to take, chances are it’s the one you were meant to.
I am. Therefore I dream. 