We tend to focus on the end—because it’s the start of something new. Having the new job, new relationship, new adventures, new feelings…anything that marks the arrival of the new you. Each time we look back toward the new thing—our eyes jump straight to it…then wander around examining all the stuff that is between us and that thing. Complications, frustrations…things that need to be sorted out, figured out, or sometimes just thrown out. All that stuff looks like a mess because it’s made up of worries, doubts, and things we simply don’t want to think about. Sometimes we allow those things to keep us from reaching our goals—that new thing we want at the end of the road. After all, there is a clear road…we just can’t always see it.

Try this out: Cover up the end point in this photo with your thumb and look around at the trees—then reveal it and try to do the same. You’ll notice whenever the end point is in view, there’s like a straining desire to look at the end—as if I’m on borrowed time until I allow my eyes to go back to that spot. When it’s covered up, that urgency is gone and I can freely focus on the trees. What if we could do that with our lives as a way of facing the stuff we don’t want to deal with?

What would be the equivalent of covering up that end point? Maybe it’s letting go of the pressure of judgement we feel in not having already reached that end goal. Maybe it’s taking a moment to accept—even embrace—who you are right now and where you are right now. Learn to love the current you and you may begin to experience the new you!