Do you suffer from Destination Addiction? What? You don’t even know what that is?
Well, my friend, I didn’t know either. Until just last week, when I chatted to a random stranger in an airport, while we both had time to kill in the departures lounge. (I kid you not about the airport and the “destination” pun)
She said that Destination Addiction is this obsession we all have with the idea that “happiness” is in the next job, the new house, the revenge body, a private jet, the brand new husband/wife. It’s this habit of thinking that we’ll be truly happy when our new car arrives, when our bank account is pretty, come Spring, when our kids graduate, when we finally land that corner office in the company of our dreams in an exotic country far away from our troubles.
Sound familiar? I thought so. Exactly how I felt, actually. Guilty as charged.
As a recovering “addict”, I moaned that being focused on the NOW requires work! “It’s no child’s play”, I told her. “I’ve been practicing it daily for the last 15 years through a Gratitude Journal. Through heartbreaks, through the loss of loved ones, through many other challenging moments, I have religiously taken just one minute a day to focus on the NOW. “That’s how I have been able to show the proverbial middle finger to the Addiction” I smiled.
As we parted ways, she said “Don’t be too quick to think you’re sorted! You may have killed the addiction. But let’s face it, us ex addicts are still going to be in rehab for the rest of our lives!”
Aluta continua, I thought.
That’s exactly how it goes with addictions.
One day at a time.
~Lee Mayimele
(Oh yes, and today I will record that I am so very happy for this very moment in my life. For the family lunch, the kiddies running around, the roast chicken, the sport on tv, the love of family. Happiness TODAY)
Lee Mayimele - Writer 