I have always been in awe of goal-oriented people.
People who don’t stop to smell the roses. People who are so single-minded that nothing will prevent them from reaching their goals.
I met up with three friends to go fishing recently. The location was a place we all had to travel hours to reach. The only flight I could take was a milk run. I flew over my destination for a two-hour layover which backtracked my first flight by 50%.
Two of my friends were going to meet me at the airport. They were 30 minutes late to pick me up, and we had to drive 45 minutes to where we stayed our first night. We didn’t get in until after midnight.
We were up until 4:30am reminiscing about the old days, telling the stories we tell every time we get together and then we were on the road at 8am, flying down the highway to meet another friend at his cabin, which we used as a home base. It is on a vast lake, and once we unpacked, we went out on the water.
Out on the water, we saw fish jumping around us. They were starving, feasting! They just weren’t into what we were serving.
The next day we drove 30 minutes down a decommissioned logging road to a trailhead and then started hiking. In 30 minutes, we gained 1000 feet and came to an alpine lake that was stocked years before. We caught fish. We caught lots of fish. They were voracious but too small to keep. We couldn’t keep them off our lures! We weren’t skunked, but there was no challenge, no sport. It was too easy. Although we had accomplished our goal, it was less than anticipated.
The 5-inch rainbows were not elusive 20lbers that we were hunting. It was bittersweet. But the journey to get there. to travel, the stories, jokes, memories created, and the beautiful scenery we passed were priceless.
We could have given up, been discouraged, sat in the cabin and played cards. But we didn’t. We stuck with our plan. We kept fishing. The following day we caught enough to feed the four of us.
When looking for a new job or a new hire, the process is where you grow and learn. The goal is just the cherry on top.
If you embrace the process, you will land the fish you want. We kept on fishing. Keep on fishing.
