Go your own way
How often do you go your own way?
When you’re making a big decision, do you tend to poll all of your family, friends, and colleagues to get their opinion first? For good measure, do you then conduct hours of research and weigh all the pros and cons? And then, because there is not a clear, safe winner, do you avoid making a decision and just keep things the same?
We all have the tendency to do this. We want to get it right. We don’t want to make a mistake.
But there’s no perfect way to traverse this life. Trying to get it right just keeps us stuck in the same place without fully experiencing its beauty and wonder.
If you think a single wrong turn will ruin your life forever, you’ve probably been standing still for too long… you’ve lost perspective.
That may sound harsh but putting your fears and problems into perspective can help you move forward and fully embrace the blessings and opportunities in front of you.
Take for example the story of Dzana Homan. She was trapped in Sarajevo during the Balkan war for four and a half years while her city was attacked daily and as she says, “people were shot in the street as a sport.” After surviving the war zone, she came to the United States not speaking any English. That didn’t stop her from fully embracing the freedom and opportunity in front of her. Twenty years later, as the CEO of the popular School of Rock, she explained to Forbes in an interview,
“A war zone prepares you for all sorts of things. I don’t want to say that everyone should have that exposure, but it puts most difficult things that you face later in life in a different perspective. Unless you’re shooting at me, or someone is bleeding or on fire, I can handle it.”
So let’s be real for a minute.
What’s the worst that can happen?
You might fall. You might fail. And then you just get back up, dust yourself off and keep on going.
It’s not the end of the world. There are always more paths you can take.
Think about this for a moment…
What if Oprah Winfrey had listened to her first boss that told her she was too emotional and not good on camera?
What if J.K. Rowling had listened to the dozens of publishers that rejected her Harry Potter manuscript and told her to not to quit her day job?
What if Walt Disney took to heart his editor’s comments that he lacked creativity and didn’t have good ideas when he was fired from a newspaper – or failed to try again after his first animation company, Laugh-O-Gram, flopped and had to file for bankruptcy?
The truth is that the worst case scenario is highly unlikely.
Even if it doesn’t turn out as you’d hoped, it probably won’t be as bad as you think. It might even lead you to even more amazing opportunities than you even thought possible!
It can be scary to do things differently, to challenge the status quo, to go it alone, especially when others are telling you not to go that route. But only you know what’s best for you.
Your intuition is the best GPS for your life. It’s perfectly fine to consult trusted friends and advisors to get feedback, but don’t let it drown out your own inner voice.
Life is too short to follow someone else’s path. Go your own way.
Leave a comment below and let me know of a time when you trusted your intuition, took an uncertain path and experienced the most amazing and unexpected blessings.