When you set goals, you naturally focus on the result. If you pay attention to the desired achievement, you will discover the path to get there. However, the value you gain from achieving the goal isn’t just about the reward of accomplishment. Once you achieve a significant goal, you will not be the same person you were when you set out on the journey. The process of achieving your goal and the experience you have gained will have changed you. This is why the journey is the reward.

The changes in yourself are much more deeply satisfying than the actual stuff you receive.

I believe that when you set goals for the purpose of developing yourself rather than a physical symbol of success, you are more likely to achieve it. You may need the physical symbol to drive you and to measure your progress, but it’s the journey that changes you, and the journey that is the reward.

Even if you never actually achieve the physical goal, perhaps because you’ve changed your mind and changed course, you will still have experienced a change in yourself, and that too is the reward.

The physical signs of success are not required for growth to occur, they are merely reflections of that growth, along with intangible reflections.

This idea that the journey is more important than the destination is a common sentiment. It just took me a while to figure out that it was true and really internalize it.