Why Journey is More Important Than The Destination

Hello Wanderlusters!

The topic for today is an interesting one with views favouring Journey being more important than the destination. The major reason being the Time expanse and the excitement involved in both the things.

“Journey is loaded with amazements and stuns, conceivable outcomes and difficulties, tears and grins, companions and outsiders, expectation and despair and a DREAM to arrive at the goal.” So, the journey seems hopeful and reaching the destination kind of feels a full stop to it!

Just reaching a destination doesn’t matter at all!

Let’s see an example clearly depicting this:
Suppose you are embarking on a journey to your favourite place, let’s say Kashmir, after all, it’s our very own Indian Paradise.

Case A: You eventually reach Kashmir but your experience may be unwanted life thrills, be it stone-pelting, or with unfortunate and doomed tiring incidents like a puncture in a tyre of your bus or maybe someone falling ill happening along the way. In this case, you would have not really enjoyed your trip but left with all the bittersweet memories.
Case B: You enjoyed all the way singing, dancing and playing throughout the journey, enjoying the beautiful sceneries of the valley and then reached Kashmir. And hence, indeed the nature of the journey and how well did you enjoy decides the pleasure of the whole trip.

There are many people who do not believe in enjoying the journey and hope beautiful destination makes everything worth, but those are the same people who always live life in a result-oriented way and be happy only when they see results in personal and professional life! And we all know how those people behave while being in the journey or while being in the process.

What the destination actually is matters relatively very less !

The place where you go has less importance than the company you have had, the experiences you have gained and the memories you have made. Sure, the place makes proud to boast it off but the smiles and the inner feeling is even more priceless.

Whether we go to North or South, be in Swadesh or Videsh when we have crazy companions whom we can enjoy with, what difference does it make, isn’t it? While it may matter in aspects of what all activities you do.

For example, You would only be able to enjoy skiing at places with snowy landscapes, Rafting only riverside places, or experience relaxing calmness at places free of hustle and bustle.

But imagine what if you choose the best place but the climate changes all of sudden or you reach there and see either too much snow or too less that could destroy your travel plan.

Thus, most of the times, the destination is trivial to what you feel and enjoy about your journey.

Always a chance for the unplanned adventure!

Every trip majorly depends on many factors like Personal Health, mood and other situations, Dependents like Immediate ones like the people you’re travelling with or Indirect ones Like travel guide or bookings made etc.

Sometimes also on bad weather or climatic conditions, a natural disaster, etc. or perhaps Situational like Wallet Theft or losing any of your valuable things, Train/ Booking cancellations.

And all of these factors are pretty out of our hands to control. So, quick amendments are required for your plans as the situation demands. It’s all about those Little Things and pleasures which make any tour memorable!

It’s not about just the tour but also the surviving skills in constant use, also the goof-ups we make during and near around the tour that decides its overall experience!

Things as small as the conversations we made with others which could deepen our relationship further or finding broader perspectives of life by self-analysis along with experiencing the breezy air from the window, any new food item tried, crazy photos, etc. are the things that you take with you after trip forever…

And to take away all the sweet memories, all that you need to do is be present at the moment, forget all your worries and live it to the fullest which can only be done if you enjoy the journey as equally as you enjoy your destination!

Journey when compared to Life

Metaphorically, when we link this idea to life, it still holds the same relevance. Destinations are indeed mirages; they don’t really exist, and we continuously keep re-defining them as per our interests we develop now and then.

Many times in life we chase a destination and then stop or change it in middle, but along the way, we learn various new things and this learning and re-iterating of definitions of our destinations are more important than reaching the destination itself.

So, even though we don’t always reach them, we could always accomplish things we wished for like happiness, which were the ultimate goals to have destinations in the first place. They sure are good for setting a direction to our journeys initially, but with time all that matters is how we spend most of the time, first handedly experiencing every tinge of life.