“Life is a journey.” Now there’s a cliché, but what does it really mean?  A journey – a process. Process can oftentimes matter more than results or outcomes. We have some control over process, less over outcomes. It’s true in business dealings; it’s true in parenting; it’s true in spiritual matters. I don’t feel pressured to produce results outside of my control, but I do feel a sense of urgency about the processes I can control.

Teddy Roosevelt’s famous quote from a speech delivered in Paris in 1910 captures this sentiment:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

The man “in the arena” is a taker of risks without regard for the outcome.

In Martina McBride’s song “Do It Anyway”, we’re encouraged to dream big without regard for the outcome. A few lyrics:

“You can spend your whole life building

Something from nothing.

One storm can come and blow it all away.

Build it anyway.

You can chase a dream

That seems so out of reach.

And you know it might not ever come your way.

Dream it anyway”

I’m convinced that we’ll get the most out of our journey if we give without regard, if we dream without regard, and if we risk without regard.