A couple posts ago I posed a problem; a seeming disconnect between one having low expectations of the world they inhabit, and their being properly motivated to complete their projects. In this post, I will address this concern. However, to do this, I need to discuss another concept that I’m sure my audience will be familiar with: the distinction between the “journey” and the “destination.”
Much folk wisdom suggests that the journey is much more important than the destination. Or perhaps it would be more fair to say that the journey is as important as the destination. But what is this journey and destination stuff exactly? To be perfectly clear about these ideas, when one decides upon a project, one has decided upon a destination of a sort. Deciding upon a project is to begin a process toward the completion of that project. One needs to determine, in some sense, how the project will be completed, what actions or tasks need to be done or even simply how to know that the project has been accomplished successfully. The things that need to be done in order to accomplish the project constitute the journey, while the completion of the project is the destination.
The analogy of travelling to completion of projects is imperfect, but fairly reliable. In order to accomplish one’s projects, one need to do various activities, and these activities might be considered sub-projects in their own right. However, all that is accomplished during the process of trying to complete the over arching project can all be as important as the project itself. Take for example the process of making a cake. To make a cake, depending on the sort of cake that is being made, there will be a need to assemble and mix a batter that will be baked, often in an oven, and then after the baking has been completed, an icing will be applied. Each of these sub-projects, the mixing of batter, the baking, and the application of icing, each has its own sub-projects as well. To apply icing, one will first need to assemble and mix ingredients to make the icing, or to bake the batter one will first need to turn on an oven and wait for it to achieve the correct internal temperature. Completing each sub-project is just as important as completing the over arching project. In fact, not completing one of the sub-projects may prevent the over arching project from being completed at all. Anyone who has missed an ingredient, or accidentally added the wrong ingredient (such as adding baking soda instead of baking powder) will understand what I am talking about.
Making a cake may seem like a silly project for me to talk about, but it is a project that many people engage in, especially recently with the pandemic encouraging most of us to stay home. Furthermore, the making of a cake is often itself a sub-project to another over arching project, such as celebrating a loved one’s birthday or anniversary. Projects are plentiful in most of our lives.
Considering the hierarchical nature of projects and sub-projects may shed some light into the relative importance that is assigned to each of these projects. For instance, mixing the batter successfully and baking it successfully may be considered more important than icing it well. After all, if the icing is a bit off, it will still taste good and as my father used to say to me, “it is all going to the same place anyway.” In this way, I assign values to each of my projects, emphasizing certain projects for completion over others. For me personally, I also tend to consider the ability to automate projects into my calculations; that is, if I can begin a project that will continue unattended, I give priority to starting those sorts of projects over the sorts of projects that require my undivided attention for the duration of the project. That way, it seems like I accomplish many more projects at the same time than others around me. I seem more efficient.
With all this in mind, it seems like the journey toward a destination is filled with many sub-destinations. My journey is likely filled with a plethora of sub-destinations, all of which I consider equally important in my over arching journey of my life. My journey has already taken me literally to reside in various parts of the world, some for longer periods than others. The simple occupation of different physical locations has, for me, profoundly increased my appreciation for the diversity of the world, both human and otherwise. I would suggest that it is my experiences in this regard that have tempered the world view that I am now extolling.
This also may subtly suggest why the journey might be considered more important than the destination. Consider that my over arching destination for my life is that I will one day expire. What’s more, I do not know what the particular conditions of my demise will be like. I don’t plan to die in a particular manner at a particular time. In fact, my general plan is to try to remain living for as long as I am able to do so. In other words, the over arching destination of my life project is not a destination that I am encouraged to consider in great detail. The journey toward that destination, for me at least, is clearly more significant to me, and something I would much rather focus on.
This example also suggests that, at least in some cases, the destination or project one has may not be one that they wish to accomplish, or perhaps would prefer to delay as much as they are able to. In a case like this, one may want to extend their journey for as long as they are able to, acquiring as may successful sub-projects as they can along the way. The journey really is more important than the destination in these cases.
This now provides a bit of an answer the the original question of how one with a low set of expectations may still be motivated to complete their projects. If one’s expectations of their over arching projects is low, then the particular journey required to achieve that project becomes less important. That is, instead of needing to follow a path that leads directly to their destination, one could decided to follow a path that is more indirect, filled with many sub-destinations. Even more than this, precisely which sub-destinations are taken become less important as well, as there is no longer the need for an efficient journey to the over arching destination. To use another folk phrase, one can “stop and smell the roses” on their journey.
It should still be emphasized that some projects may be important enough or significant enough to warrant following the most efficient and direct path to their achievement as can possibly be found. Time sensitive situations, such as emergencies involving life and death frequently fall into this category. However, not every situation is an emergency or involves life and death. And the over arching project we each have of our very lives is certainly not the sort of project we would want to follow the most efficient path to its successful accomplishment of. At least, this is what I believe; I am sure there are some out there who will disagree with this valuation.
In my next post, I will discuss a particular project that I think is quite prevalent for most people. A project that I believe most people approach as a project that requires an efficient and quick journey toward, but that I will argue actually requires the sort of slow, delayed journey I have just described. That project, is love.