Journey People and Destination People
By Ken Gregoire, Ph.D. President/CEO
Drug Addiction Treatment:
There are two distinctly different types
of people at the far ends of a continuum.
Destination people proceed through life
focused on destinations…end points that are
very much desired. Destination people are
very much goal oriented. They consciously set
goals and are totally focused on achieving
them. They ruminate about goals, devise strategies to achieve
goals and day dream about how good life will be when a goal
is achieved. Their focus is often very narrow, as can be the
scope of their interests.They map out their journey, anticipate
barriers and attempt to reach their destination in the shortest
possible time. All that they see, all that they do, all that they
think about is getting to the destination. A delay in reaching
a destination is very upsetting. Failure to reach a destination-
-catastrophic and devastating. The trip to a destination is a
bother to destination people. They see, hear and sense very
little on the journey that is not related to the destination.
Destination people, appear to be absent minded though in
reality their memory is infallible when it relates to their desired
destination. A journey for a destination person is a race and
they become impatient with fellow travelers who can’t keep
pace or want to tarry to enjoy the ride. They are competitive
and focus on winning. Ironically, destination people, after a
brief period of exhilaration, often feel restless and even empty
once the destination is achieved. They quickly find another
destination and the race begins again. Destination people are
cool people. They often accomplish great things. But, all too
often they find themselves looking back with regret.
Journey people proceed through life focused on destinations
too. It’s just that the destination isn’t the only
thing. Sometimes it isn’t even the thing. as journey people
frequently change their destination somewhere during the
journey. An object in the middle of a path would be an
obstacle to overcome for a destination person. For a journey
person it might engender fascination and might become the
best part of a journey. Time is not so important to journey
people. A short trip can turn into a long trip without causing
any distress. Failure to reach a destination likewise isn’t
always felt as a failure…sometimes it is cause for
celebration. It’s not that journey people don’t have
goals…they do, of course. And they can be remarkably adept
at achieving goals. It’s just that they seem to insist on enjoying,
noticing and celebrating the trip. They often have an artist’s
eye and temperament. The artist has an eye for color, form,
proportion and perspective and observes much on the journey
that escapes destination people. The artist can easily lose
consciousness of the destination while noticing the shades
and juxtapositions of color and form in a landscape. Sometimes
they reach their destination almost by accident. The journey
person tends to live in the here and now. The journey person
will see the eagle soaring overhead rather than obsess about
the tasks and hurdles that need to be managed to reach the
destination.
The journey person instinctively knows the
difference between a journey with an end point and one that
stretches out indefinitely, a distinction that a destination
person has to learn through loss and missed opportunity.
Journey people grasp the real challenge and joy of recovery from drug addiction treatment,
a journey that doesn’t have a known destination, a journey
that stretches out, that curves and twists and morphs, a
journey that is to be enjoyed, that is full of mystery’s to be
solved, paradoxes to contemplate and simple joys and
accomplishments. Journey people know that the recovery after
drug addiction treatment
actually has many destinations--meeting of new friends,
hearing new jokes, seeing oneself from a variety of new vantage
points, finding relief and freedom in an ever deepening sense
of humility, filling more and more with every step of the
journey with the sense of a power greater than self. So, if you
are a journey person enjoy your journey in recovery, you are
made for this trip. If you are a destination person look for the
eagle overhead once and a while and the glory of the sunset
on another sober day. I have heard many say that
recovery after treatment
is a journey not a destination.
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