Originally published by Bruce Kasanoff on LinkedIn: The Journey... Is Your Destination

I've been polite the past 30 years or so, as one career article, business magazine, and well-meaning guru speaker after another tells us how to reach our goals.

No, that's not completely accurate. In truth, I've fallen for this nonsense numerous times. Being naturally results-oriented, I'm a sucker for anything that offers a happy ending.

But every now and then, as the fog clears temporarily around my head, I recognize that goals are fleeting. What you want as a teenager isn't what you want at 40, and what you want at 70 isn't what you want at 30.

What matters most is how you act - and feel - day after average day.

Anyone can feel joy upon getting promoted or winning a race. But do you feel joy because it's 6 a.m. and you are starting another day?

Do you feel gratitude because you get to commute one hour on a heated train that is pretty much on time all the time?

Is your heart filled with awe when you walk into a huge metal tube and it FLIES into the sky and lands precisely where you wanted it to land?

When you provide food and shelter for your family, does it make you proud?

When you solve a problem, does it give you satisfaction?

Do you watch for opportunities to help others, or to simply cheer someone up?

It's not about where you're going; it's about how you go about each day.

If you are focused only on the outcome - getting to a party on time, doing better than your classmates, sitting next to your boss at a meeting - then every day becomes stressful.

But if you focus on how you carry yourself and how you treat others, then every day provides you with many chances to succeed.

Here's the thing that I keep forgetting...

If you realize that the journey itself is your destination, then all the good things you want still happen anyway.

Treating people with decency and respect ultimately works in your favor. So does living each day with gratitude, and being less attached to specific outcomes.

There's nothing I've told you today that you didn't already know. But we are surrounded by aspirational noise that pushes us to be transaction oriented: get that promotion, get that client, get that raise, get that new car, get credit, get praise, get ahead.

Relationships matter. People matter. Decency and civil discourse matter. Specific transactions? Not so much.

When your alarm goes off tomorrow, I hope you smile.

Bruce Kasanoff writes and edits content for a wide range of entrepreneurs and executives.