The word alone manifests an expectation. Out comes…? Out comes a baby. Out comes laughter. Out comes anger. Out comes an expectation of something I am hoping for. This simple word has never looked and felt as daunting as now. What is even more shackling is the feeling that I am attached to it. We can all tend to get attached to outcomes. I think it is a part of human behavior to enter into a situation with an outcome in mind. We act out of our own interest. We are creative beings who fantasize what an outcome will be or what it looks like. How something will play out. When doing this, I am not in the moment, in the journey or enjoying either one. I am only in the future and in agenda of what I think the outcome should be. Ah, there are the two words that should never be….SHOULD BE. How many times have you thought of what or how something should be and, in turn, have been extremely disappointed? Should be is all about comparison to something else. An idea that you hold on to that causes pain, hurt, frustration, feelings of less than, etc… An outcome is the finish line. It is no fun running a race if the only thing you are focused on is the finish line. If my life long goal was to be at a certain place by the time I was 40, what happens when I reach that age? I can foresee one of two things: 1) I reach my goal but have not stopped along the way to see all that has led up to it, therefore missing out on how beautiful the journey was. 2) I don’t reach that goal by the time I am 40 and I am completely discouraged and feel I am a failure because I “should” have crossed the proverbial finish line. What I failed to even realize was my goal had completely changed. What I had been holding on to was only an outcome and when I stopped to be in the exploration of the journey, I realized my goals had already been reached and far beyond.
I can’t be an outcome. I can’t be a goal. However, I can be an eternal explorer.
