One might go a step further and aver that focusing on the journey is too structured if an existence.

You are already here.

This is it. Relax.

It helps that I'v never really had a "goal" aside from making sure my kids grew up to be reasonably efficient and productive adults. That goal was exceeded. Now I'm just trying to hang aound with style, panache, and grace until I can retire. Or trying to not get fired until I can retire so I can keep health benefits. Whichever works. I've never had a good answer to the "where do you see yourself in X years" question. Life take too many twists and turns. There's still too much I don't know, and my damn crystal ball cracked before I got it out of the box.

Goals just provide a sense of purpose, I try ro avoid them at all costs

‘Life is Either a Daring Adventure or Nothing.’—Helen Keller

I really believe this. Although, the individual is the only one who can define what their "daring adventure" is going to be.
The only thing I would add is that you have absolutely, got to be, 100% FLEXIBLE.
I think that's something that hangs a lot of people up. Life is going to throw some
bullshit at you, you've got to be able to deal with it, and often, amend whatever plan
you're working. Lack of flexibility can really stymie some folks. The road is usually
never straight. I think it serves people well to prepare for, and learn to enjoy, the
curves and detours. They're definitely out there, best to expect them.

Beautifully stated. I was an avid runner. I've lived this. There was a 7 car pile up on the interstate. Every disc in my back was effected. I haven't run since. But looking at the small achievements helps. I've moved from hospital bed to wheelchair to walker, cane, and now I can walk on my own. Will there be running in my future? I don't know, but I have my accomplishments and I have today.

I believe we should be both goal and journey oriented. It’s important to know that life as we know it could go away in an instant. That is what should drive one to appreciate life every day. Gratitude is important.

I have certainly had a lot of my important goals thwarted in life and I tend to see it less in terms of journey vs goals, as in just not being attached to goals or particular outcomes. The connection between effort / intent and outcomes is flaky at best. Once you understand this you hold your goals far more provisionally.

My problem with grooving on the journey is that the journey is often not in itself that pleasant, and merely represents delayed gratification for the sake of the goal. Making the journey the point is helpful if the journey itself is its own reward.

Consider a train trip from Chicago, the goal being to visit the Big Apple. If you enjoy train trips, if it fascinates rather than bores you to look out into countless low-rent-district back yards and scrap metal facilities for hours and hours, then the journey is part of the point of the trip to New York. On the other hand if not -- then it's just an investment in the actual point. An investment that is totally wasted if the train doesn't get you to New York. An investment that is also totally wasted if nothing good happens in New York to offset the journey. Say, you're immediately mugged and spend your two week vacation in a body cast.

Without a goal orientation, a person will not accomplish much. But, if our life is to be lived in its fullest, we must also learn to live in the moment. It is not an either - or, but a combination of both that accomplsies the most real fulfillment.

This makes sense to me!

Show us by example...how do you focus on journey instead of goal?

I was not raised with a "goal-oriented" mindset. I don't know if that was good, or bad, or if it made no difference. Planning for long-term didn't work out, at least as far as marriages went, anyhow. I did manage to get university educated, and retired at 60; but, never had solid, hard-focused, bound-to-do-this type ambitions.

My "philosophy" now is live day-to-day, enjoy the moment; don't worry about the future, or dwell on the past, neither is beneficial, unless perhaps you're a historian, or science fiction writer.

Definitely. One day at a time here.

Yes to journey and process focus! I like to emphasize being achievement focused rather than comptitively focused. Your example of the swimmer with the goal of " being the best in the world" doesn't even require a dramatic loss to be a valid observation. No accidents necessary. That is because even "the best in the world" will not remain so, ever. Just ask any athlete. Ask Tiger Woods. Ask Michael Jordan. Eventually ability declines and is overtaken by someone else. That competitive person's sense of self-worth is then so fragile. Focus on process and achievement allows you to appreciate your own efforts, despite how well others do.

I say, take responsibility for your failures and successes in life. Learn from them. Focus on a goal if you have one (hopefully you won't have your legs severed??), and determine your own destiny in life. You choose where you'll work for example and you choose your own career path. Not the other way around. You decide whether you will be successful or not. No one decides that for you. I say, take that bull by the horns and do your life!

It goes without saying life is, indeed, a journal in and of itself. Although to an uncomfortable many such a realization is considered trivial or mundane. This writer believe it may ideally be one of the most important, overlooked realizations in the world today. That rejection to understand this fact (everything that happens is part of life-long journey) is the cause of so many emotional ailments because the frustration and unacceptable failures, in-turn, produce more lemons than lemonade, so the speak. We darn humans are always trying to fix something that doesn’t work the way we desire, or expect.

I wonder, am I out-of-line, unreasonable to deduce common sense has become common non-sensible ways of understanding life? WOW!!

I've been saying that for years. I just couldn't articulate it as well as you could. I would add, it is fine to have goals but one is setting themselves up for misery if they don't appreciate the journey just for the sake of the experience. I can't tell you how many people I have worked with who get divorced after many years of marriage, and they tell me they have wasted all those years. Really? Didn't you have a lot of different experiences during that time? Didn't you learn about life and yourself during that time? Wasn't it just a part of your journey in life? Oh, I can't tell you how many people, not because there were so many, just that I have a bad memory . Also, people will tell me they are feeling bad because they "should" have a wife, a husband, a house, a career, children, etc by this time in their life.. Enjoy and experience the journey! Thanks for posting. It will help me express this concept in a better way in the future.

I disagree, somewhat. We can accept that life is in fact a journey, but we may also be driven toward achieving goals. When I was in high school I played basketball and used to practice free throws for hours a day. My goal was to make 50 in a row, without missing. Having reached it, my goal turned to 100. I never acheived that goal, missing at 98 once or twice, but had I not set those goals, I would not have been able to make the winning free throws in several league games.

Later, in music I learned that if I did not practice very hard—setting achievement goals for myself—I would not be fully prepared for the concert. As a result, my performance would suffer, and I ended up unhappy and unfulfilled. But now, when I practice very hard, and am fully prepared for the performance, I find that the concert is an incomparable joy. With every note learned, and the technique out of the way, I'm free to delve even deeper into the score, be at one with the music, and reach an ecstatic plateau, unobtainable if I had not set those goddamned goals!

It is those special days and moments that make your life special. aspiring to be the biggest or the best or the best looking is generally going to end in tears.

Written like a Millennial. Enjoy the journey, but focus on your goals.

This makes sense to me!

I can jive with the journey, but I wouldn't necessarily agree that we should be journey-oriented. I think we should be goal-oriented, but mindful of the journey and appreciative of what it grants us.