Natik: Success isn't a destination, it's a process!

Greetings!  

I hope you are enjoying the best of this holiday season with those you love. 

Ferociously cultivating love and light in our circles of influence is an urgent imperative for anyone who has the blessing of love and light in their life right now. 

This year, Natik’s theme has been “Success isn’t a destination, it’s a process.” I’ve loved that phrase since I was a young teen, when it was the saying of the week on our family’s kitchen calendar. (Remember those?!)  

In the 50+ years since then, the wisdom of that simple sentence has had many occasions to prove its worth, despite some strong cultural expectations that life should be managed and measured by our accomplishments. 

Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with setting goals. We all need a North Star to guide the general direction of our individual and collective paths. However, if we can’t fully embrace the journey itself, then what’s the point of the goal? 

Plus, for anyone who is truly paying attention, there are too many times when unexpected lessons, serendipity, or divine intervention changes the paradigm so radically that the goal becomes obsolete. 

The danger of lending too much credence to a particular goal means that something that might have been a game-changing gift could be perceived as annoying impediment. We’ve all known folks who’ve spent their lives miserably trudging toward a goal simply because it’s always been the goal. 

In 2024 we'll be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Natik’s founding. I’d like to affirm here and now that we are actively establishing Natik-wide policies, protocols, and processes that will help us balance both measurable accomplishments AND adaptability--- now and into the future.   

After all, hummingbirds don’t trudge; they flit and dance! 

We celebrate with gratitude that together, we've steadily improved access to education, empowered community health, and created locally sustained livelihoods in areas that desperately need all those things. We also welcome all the quirky and serendipitous circumstances along the way. 

That’s our story and we’re sticking to it!