The Journey is the Reward

Accept what life gives you and enjoy the ride

- Smt. Sujatha Rao

While reading Walter Issacson's book "Steve Jobs", of the many things that touched me deeply about Steve's life, his quote 'the journey is the reward' happened to be one of them.

Apparently, this koanlike maxim adorned a chart at Apple's workplace to motivate Apple's Mac team, which as Steve, was on an exalted mission. Yet another one of Steve's popular maxims was 'It's better to be a pirate than to join the navy, which exhorted his team to have a rebel spirit and a renegade feeling, so that they would get things moving fast.

Taking these words literally, the Mac team would often refer to themselves as 'the pirates'. Hence, it came as a little surprise, when they paid for a billboard on the road to Apple's headquarters on Steve's birthday (24th February) that read 'Happy 28th Steve. The Journey is the Reward ---The Pirates.'

Come to think of it, life is nothing but a journey from birth to death. In fact, you don't want to reach the ultimate destination. You want the journey to be pleasurable and last as long as it can. So, you are not walking or running towards a finishing line, though you may be under the false impression that you are chasing some goal, because its alternative, stopping, literally scares you.

In this journey, the beginning and end are certain to happen. What happens in between is left to each one of us. Whatever pleasure we derive from this act has to come from within ourselves.

So, how do we navigate this journey so that it really turns out to be our 'reward,' when the end comes, with or without notice?

Focus on the present