This is it! The moment you have been waiting for is here!
You’ve climbed up the mountain that is the Q15 program for 5 weeks now and you are approaching the top. It’s cloudy up there and you are having some trouble getting your bearings, but when your eyes finally adjust you look down the mountain and can see where you came from. The town below at the foot of the mountain seems so small and distant, it almost looks insignificant. After climbing for so long, it’s hard to even remember what you did everyday when you lived down there for so long.
But wait, there is a door up here on the side of the mountain! You can barely see it with all the haze, but as you approach it you notice a troubling fact: You’re not actually at the summit of the mountain, you’re just at one of the peaks on the way to the top! There is a tiny window in the door and you peek through: You can see that behind the door is some sort of stairway to climb even higher up the mountain. It goes so high that you can’t really see where it ends way up in the clouds. You try to open the door but it’s locked!
You search your bag and your pockets frantically for a key, although you know deep down that you don’t have one in there. There is no one around to ask for help; All of the climbers you saw on the way have either turned back by now, or are way behind you on the side of the mountain. The wind blows hard and you notice that above the door there is an inscription in the rock. It reads:
“BECOME WHAT YOU DESIRE”
You don’t understand. Become what? Become a key? Become the top of the mountain? You sit down on a rock and think for a minute. You wish you could become a locksmith…
Looking down on that town below, you think you see smoke rising from a chimney. People are probably having fun down there right now! You think of all the food that’s cooking, and all the warm couches that are just waiting for a butt to sit in them. You’re beginning to think that climbing this mountain was a stupid idea, a waste of time and energy–especially since you didn’t even make it to the top!
You take out your phone and snap a few selfies from the peak. At least when you go back down you can prove to your friends that you made it up this far. You look at the pictures and you don’t even recognize yourself at first. You look different: You look healthy, vibrant, and more alive. You look like you’ve accomplished something. You also realize that you look pretty damn good!
The thoughts of butt-less couches and food cooking in the town below begin to fade away. You desperately want to open that door and keep climbing up the mountain. You don’t know if you will ever make it to the true summit, but you want to keep trying. You don’t even care about getting to the very top…you realize that you actually just want to see where the path goes.
You have an epiphany. It was the journey that brought you here. It was the journey that transformed you into that person you just saw in the picture. You don’t want a prize for making it to the top, for completing your journey. In fact, there is no end to your journey. It’s the challenge itself that you love: The process of change, of transformation. The journey is the goal!
You let this realization wash over you. You try to hold on to all of the feelings and thoughts that are flooding your mind right now, because you never want to forget this moment. The sudden weight of all of this becomes overwhelming, pausing your conscious mind for a brief moment, and allowing all of your defenses to unravel. You open up completely for a quick second and all of these ideas and emotions are allowed access to that little locked-box deep within your heart where you keep your true identity. The process takes only a few seconds, but you feel permantely changed: The journey is now part of your identity, inscribed on your soul. It’s not just something you did, it is part of who you are.
You have become the journey.
You hear a loud snap as the lock in the door releases. You push the door open and walk inside. You start up the stairs without looking back.
