Chapter 12. Our Minds Are Double-Edged Swords: The Power of Positive and Negative Thinking
If I had to state a philosophy on life—a motto for living, so to speak—it would be that life is a journey.
It has taken me a while to learn that and then to really believe it; but over time, I truly have. And now I'm living it.
It can be so easy when we're young to become sidelined by the pit stops instead of seeing the big picture. So easy to become distracted by the supposed destinations of an imagined future: "When I graduate from high school, life will really begin. I'll be out of my parents' house and on my own! No curfews, no detentions—only freedom!" And then . . . "I can't wait to graduate from college and start a real job. I'll be able to get out of this campus housing and get my own place and shop at Ikea. I'll throw dinner parties and get pretty shoes and buy a briefcase. It'll be awesome." And then . . . "I can't wait until I meet someone and settle down. We'll take glamorous vacations to Bali and order fruity drinks with miniature umbrellas delivered to our lounge chair by a bellboy wearing white shorts. We'll sleep in on Saturday and read the paper on Sunday and it will be perfect."
Have you been there? Have you succumbed to this kind of thinking? The danger in putting your faith in "destinations" rather than the journey is that you're always looking over the next hill—always scanning the horizon for something different and better and more exciting. And in doing so, you miss the ...
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