Here’s the thing. You can spend your whole life searching the world for Ithaca and you will never find it, you will always have the feeling that something is missing, that you have not yet reached your true destination. All the while, the true Ithaca always was and is within you. When and if a person finally stopped running around and sits down quietly then this Ithaca becomes clear and the lotus eating can be paused or stopped.
This is what so many people miss. You need to be internally motivated to reach your Ithaca. Being externally motivated will make you forever unrequited, forever wondering if what you have reached truly is Ithaca.
"Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean."
