Some people think life is all about how much we accomplish.

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Or how quickly they get to their goals.

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Maybe it is all about becoming an executive.

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Or perhaps about selling their startup.

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They think about how quickly they can become a millionaire.

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After that, it is all about making ten times that much.

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We sometimes feel that if we have not achieved massive success as quickly as we can we have somehow failed.

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Yet we don't realize that going after our goals is only one aspect of life.

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In fact, it may not even be the most important aspect of life.

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What about our family and our friends?

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Relationships are not something to check off a list.

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Indeed, perhaps the greatest aspect of life is how resilient we are able to become.

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Or how connected we are to our community.

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Climbing the highest mountain may be a noble desire.

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Yet we often forget to think about what we will do should we become injured along the way.

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We rarely consider how we would respond to a tragedy to a great loss.

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For life is not a straight line or a linear path.

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It is filled with ups and downs, and many moments when we move sideways.

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Our long term plans often fall by the wayside for something more important to us.

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Maybe a relative health issues end up taking us in totally different direction.

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Or an accident that causes us permanent physical damage.

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In the end, it's not how high we go or how fast we get there, but how well we bounce.

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And who we bounce with.

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We all hit the bottom sometime.

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Do we stay there, or get back up?

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How we deal with the unexpected tells more about us than how well we live up to our plans.

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Yet we make our goals more important than how we live our lives.

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When in all consideration, the opposite is true.

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How we live our lives is not only more important, it is everything.

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If we look at how we show up everyday, day in and day out, that is where the real prize is.

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In all the little moments we get to spend on this earth.

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With the people we love and care about.

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Doing the things we love to do.

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The experience of walking in the woods or swimming in the ocean.

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Seeing the beauty of the world and feeling what it is like to just be home.

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It may not all feel good.

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And those times are equally important.

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For life is lived in each of those little moments that add up to life.

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We run, we jump, we trip, we fall, and we bounce all the time.

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How well we bounce and get back up off the ground says volumes about us.

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So where are you concentrating more on the goals than on the journey?

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How can you live life more in the moment and cultivate your bounce?

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~ Sam Liebowitz, The Conscious Consultant