Remember that happiness is a way of travel not a destination

Ralph Waldo Emerson? Lynn H. Hough? Aerosmith? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Ralph Waldo Emerson is often credited with the following: Life is a journey, not a destination. I’ve searched the RWE.org database without luck and did a text search through over 1100 pages of his essays. I believe this is a misattribution. Any insight you have into the lineage of this quote would be much appreciated. Quote Investigator: QI believes that an exact match for the expression above has not been found in the oeuvre of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Yet, Emerson did write a thematically related remark [RWEJ]: To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom. This sentence suggested a psychological vantage point in which the intermediate advances of the journey were representative of the completion of the journey. This is arguably a distinct statement from the questioner’s saying which is listed in “The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs” without attachment to a specific person [DPLJ]. The earliest close match located by QI appeared in 1920 in a periodical called “The Christian Advocate”. The phrase was used by the theologian Lynn H. Hough within his outline for a Sunday School Lesson discussing a letter from Simon Peter. Bold face has been added to the phrase here and some phrases below [LHCA]: He wanted his friends to realize that life is a journey and not a destination; that the heart must be set upon those matters o...

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Too often, we look at happiness as an end result. We view it as a commodity, something that can be given to us, or that we can take, or buy, or achieve through hard work. Many of us, consciously or unconsciously, consider it something we’re entitled to, and feel put-upon when we don’t get it. We think, “If I only had ______, I’d be happy.” We may work insanely hard to get “______.” We may simply mope and moan that we don’t have “______.” But somehow, we never seem to be quite…happy. Viewing happiness as an end result sets us up for an endless cycle of disappointment and dissatisfaction. Happiness isn’t an end goal—it’s a state of being. It isn’t a tangible asset that we can touch and taste and hold, it’s a mindset. It doesn’t require anything special, and it makes no difference at all whether we do or don’t have “_____.” Things, people, and relationships don’t provide it to us; it’s a gift we give ourselves. It means looking for the bright spot in the dark, and the brighter spot in the day. No matter how dire the situation, there is always,always something to be grateful for. Being happy means finding that something, no matter how small it may be, and holding onto it. Happiness is a conscious choice, a matter of changing our perspective on the world. At any given moment on any given day, in each and every situation, we have two choices: be happy, or be unhappy. Choose happiness.

Since leaving London in 2006 I’ve travelled, worked, volunteered and lived in over 90 countries. Highlights so far would be driving along the Silk Road from Beijing to Istanbul, a complete circuit of South America and volunteering with Habitat for Humanity in Costa Rica. I’m currently back in Beijing, as a base to visit more of Asia and attempt to learn Mandarin. Thanks for visiting, Steve Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Cookie Duration Description cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics 11 months This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional 11 months The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary 11 months This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". cookielawinfo-checkbox-others 11 months This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance 11 months This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". viewed_cookie_...

“Remember that happiness is a way of travel—not a destination.” ~Roy M. Goodman After graduating from college I took off to explore Europe for four months with one of my best friends. We backpacked through fourteen different countries and learned things about the world and ourselves that we never expected. We often joked that we learned more about life and ourselves traveling abroad for four months than we did going to school for four years in college. When you’re traveling, you Still infected with the travel bug, I decided last year to spend six weeks with a good friend in China. In the land of Buddhas, bikes, and chopsticks, I remembered three important lessons that have helped me find happiness and fulfillment in everyday life. 1. Great things can happen when you’re flexible. When you’re traveling, you expect there to be bumps in the road or unexpected surprises, and that’s what makes it so exciting. If everything went as planned, you wouldn’t have a story to tell other than “I saw the Great Wall of China and it was large.” If you’re being flexible, you open yourself up to opportunities that sometimes can stem from a single moment gone wrong. My friend and I booked a few nights in a hostel in Yangshuo a week ahead of time with plans to stay in the same room together. Things didn’t quite work out as we planned. The management gave our room away, which meant we’d need to stay in separate rooms for a few nights. So we did, without complaint. This is how we met Ping Ping, w...

Life is a long journey that we embark on the moment we are brought into this world. It is a long, sometimes unclear path but the most important thing to remember along the way is that happiness is the journey. We always think of happiness as a destination or a finish line, but if you only focus on the happiness you will feel at the destination, you will never see the beauty and happiness that resides around you every day. For life's a journey, and to say that happiness is the destination and not the journey, is to say that you have not lived a happy life. For a long time, I always thought that happiness was the destinations or goals that we are trying to reach in life. Like, I always thought "when I’ll be 16 I will be happy because I will be able to get my driver’s license and have a car", or when senior year of high school began I always thought to myself, "man I cannot wait to graduate in May". But as I grew up, and I turned 16, and a few years later I graduated, I was happy... but only for those moments. Because I had based my happiness on sole destinations, rather than focusing on enjoying the journey. It was only at that point, did I realize that happiness was the journey. On this journey of life, we will have those moments where we hit roadblocks and it throws us off course, and then all of a sudden we are completely lost. It seems like all happiness has been lost, and as if there is no hope. But the most important thing to remember is that you have to keep moving fo...