Success is in the journey

Just about every self-help guide to success will talk about the importance of setting goals. Long-term goals that represent your ultimate life dreams. Short-term goals that mark your progress. Even micro goals that provide daily encouragement to keep you on track.

And it’s true. How can you know what direction to take if you don’t know where you’re going?

At The Academy, you’ll learn all about goal-setting – how to identify not just what you want in life but, more importantly, why you want it; how to create a road map to achieve your dreams; and the markers along the way that let you know you’re on the right path.  But when you stand back and look at that map, you’ll see that the ‘journey’ takes up a whole lot more space than the ‘destination’.

You might see interesting places to explore en route, entertaining side roads to journey down, quiet corners where you can take time to catch your breath and fields of beautiful roses to stop and smell along the way.

As you head along the path, some of the experiences you encounter may at first look like road blocks, sending you along a detour that seems to be taking you in the wrong direction. Maybe you didn’t get high enough marks for the course you had planned … or an unplanned pregnancy siderails you from your career path … or the relationship you thought was lifelong falls apart unexpectedly.

But as you travel tentatively along those detours, perhaps this is where you will learn the most valuable lessons in life – about inner strength, resilience, the ability to adapt, the survival instinct … and all those gifts that help you grow as a person.

If we are solely focussed on our ultimate destination or even the interim goals that mark our ‘progress’, all of these magical opportunities and special moments would pass by unnoticed.
And the real secret is that the experiences we encounter on the journey will shape our personality, formulate our values and create the essence of who we truly are as unique individuals.

As a student at The French Beauty Academy, we know your end goal is to secure a job that will allow you to live your dream life. But as you travel the road to success, don’t forget to enjoy the journey by totally immersing yourself in the student experience. Take time to make new friends, get to know your teachers, learn from all the wonderful industry professionals you’ll meet. HAVE FUN … LOTS OF FUN!

Because this is what will give you the capacity to appreciate success when it comes your way, the resilience to adapt if circumstances change and the confidence to adjust your definition of success as you gain a deeper understanding of who you really are.

Photo credit – Paul Mood