You Have Reached Your Destination
Many of you will be able to actually hear the GPS system’s voice in your head when you read the words: “You have reached your destination!”
As the incredibly geographically challenged but quite resourceful individual I like to think I am, I rely on my car’s GPS system to help me get where I need to go. And I had a doctor’s appointment a while ago, and darned if she didn’t move her office to a new location in the year since I’d seen her last.
So, I enter in the new address and I go off on my merry way. All is going great for about 30 minutes until I’m driving down a road I’m only somewhat familiar with and I hear my GPS cheerfully announce to me (with nary an office building in sight mind you)
“You have reached your destination!”
Now What?!
As Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might wind up somewhere else.” Yogi Berra was a genius.
I didn’t know where I was going, my GPS system told me I was there, except there was no “there” there…
I think Gertrude Stein said that once. See, I’m hardly the only one who gets lost!
I once was lost…
“Not all those who wander are lost.”
~J.R.R. Tolkien
I eventually realized my trusty GPS wasn’t really “wrong” and I was actually close to my doctor’s office…on the other side of a divided highway that I had to u-turn to get back to. It was no problem once I started looking around with my own eyes to locate things. But this experience of being told I had reached my destination when my destination was nowhere in sight actually hit me like a punch in the stomach that said “Hey, you, wake up and realize this is important.”
…but now I found something!
This is life. This is a lot like life. This is my life.
I’m getting up and going through my days and doing a whole lot of things, setting a lot of goals, believing in a lot of stuff that I do… often with my eyes set firmly on a line set out in the distance… a horizon that I may someday reach, but not now.
If Not Now, Then When?
But why not now? I practice mindfulness to be more aware of what is happening and what I am feeling in the moment. But that feels like the micro to this macro.
Life can not only be a journey, life is the destination. The pursuit of anything important doesn’t have to have an “ending” on that horizon… the pursuit can be the destination. I don’t have to have seen my last client to have reached my destination. I don’t have to have written my last blog post. I don’t have to get my daughter off to college or anything else in order to “get there.”
I am there. You are there. We are there. Wherever “there” is.
We have reached our destination! : )
Dr. Anita Sanz, PhD, Psychologist
How to Take Mental Health Meds Safely
Mental Health Medication If you take psychotropic medications, meaning anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medications, mood stabilizers, or anti-psychotic medications, it’s not unusual…
Why Should I Use a Life Planner?
If you already know how to successfully use a life planner, then I don’t need to tell you how it’s…
How To Make Your New Year’s Resolutions Stick!
Not everyone makes New Year’s Resolutions… there are some people who don’t see the new year as a time for…
A Season of Change
A Magical Time of Transition Have you ever walked out of your front door on an Autumn morning and you…
A Life Planner For Better Mental Health
Most people think using a life planner just helps you to remember dentist appointments and when your kid has soccer…
An Easier Path to Meal Planning
Are you spending too much going out to eat? Trying to eat healthier, but getting either bored or overwhelmed with…
Let’s Put the FUN Back in DysFUNctional!
The Holidays Are Coming! For many people, that means increased contact with family and extended family members… a source of…
Feed a Human, Starve a Troll
If you spend much time online, especially on social networking sites, you’ll get a chance to meet a troll. Okay,…
How to Kill Your Relationship in 10 Easy Steps
I’ve been seeing a lot of couples lately who are in the death throes of the process leading ultimately to…
How to Deal With Change
It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory. ~W. Edwards Deming This is a time of year when…
What’s Your “Baby?”
Babies…cute, cuddly, sweet, adorable. Right? Well, yes… and no. Now I know some people love taking care of babies and…
Falling Out of Love Is Not the End
I’m Not IN LOVE Anymore I know you’ve heard this. You might have said it. “I LOVE her, but I’m…
You Can Do Better Than “So, How Was Your Day?”
“So, how was your day?” Fine. “What happened in school today?” Nothing. You’re trying to connect. You’re trying to get…
Daily Emotional Dialysis
Filtering Difficult Experiences I’m a big fan of the emotional equivalent of “emptying the trash.” By writing in a journal…
- Well Being (56)
- Life Hacks (18)
- The Big Picture (8)
- Health (10)
- Relationships (13)
- Holidays (7)
- Therapy (40)
- Anxiety (9)
- Depression (16)
- On The Couch (15)
- Life Planning (5)