Where has Your Path Taken You?
Have you ever sat questioning your path in life?
I have, many times.
A few years ago I recall sitting in my cubicle at work. I was nearing my 45th birthday.
Unlike with most birthdays, I was not excited about my ensuing birthday. No, this time I was feeling angst. I recognized that I was not living my purpose and that bothered me.
My path had led me to a place where others were ecstatic about the work I did. I, however, was getting no fulfillment from it. I was not growing from it. I enjoyed solving problems for people, but it was not the type of problems I wanted to solve.
Sometimes Your Path Leads You Nowhere
During the 10 years prior to that birthday my career trajectory stagnated. It was like it had flat-lined.
No matter what I tried, I could not get a pulse on how to move ahead in my career. I tried graduate school. In the process, I gained more knowledge and 100 pounds. If there was a career focused session to attend, I attended it and applied what I had learned.
The flat-line situation remained the same until that day when I sat still looking at my monitor, but not looking at it.
Stay Still So Your Path Can Reveal Itself
As I sat there I thought about how I had avoided opportunities because I was afraid of failing.
I had done that. No one had done it to me.
I sat staring at my monitor when it hit me that my path may include other people, but I have no control over other people.
There was something I could control, however: me.
My mind was reeling with thoughts. It was like the clouds I had allowed to hover for so long were clearing. I was gaining clarity.
Listen to What Your Path is Telling You to Do
As I sat for a moment longer, I flashed back to a speech given by Carla Harris. She is a corporate executive who I have written about before. She is also a writer and a speaker.
During her speech she told us that if you are not getting the skills that you need on your job, get them from the activities and organizations you belong to outside of work.
“Plan an activity or volunteer to take on leadership assignments at church or an organization you belong to”, she told us.
I took her advice.
It was as if as soon as I said that something new happened.
That day was my “Ah ha!” moment.
That day is what turned my life around.
Start Living the Path Meant for You
I still have not been promoted. That is no longer my focus. My focus is to live my purpose.
You see, my purpose and path in life are clear now.
My fears, my inability to get promoted, and I dare say my failures, moved me in the right direction once I let go of the past.
I am now doing what I was meant to do.
I am meant to be writing this blog right now.
I am meant to stand in front of audiences inspiring adults, teens, and college students to create opportunities or to embrace living a healthy lifestyle.
I am meant to be an ambassador for changing minds and changing lives.
You Will Know When You are Moving in the Right Direction
My path would have directed me to where I needed to be, eventually, but had I continued to dwell in the past, to think about my failures, to think about what was not happening for me, or to be stuck in my fears, I admittedly would have been acting foolishly.
As I take on more leadership roles, build this blog into something that is recognizable by few to many, expand my reach as speaker, and launch my first book, I know I am moving in the right direction.
I had this validated for me when a video of Oprah Winfrey came across my Facebook feed.
It was not a recent video, but it was uplifting and was confirmation for me.
Oprah Winfrey Says “Focus on the Next Right Move”
If you have ever sat questioning your path, I encourage you to watch the video. It is a must see.
By the end you will realize you are no fool. You are on the right path, so relax.
In addition to the video, I have provided the manuscript for you. That comes after the tweet.
[youtube width=”560″ height=”315″]https://youtu.be/VSoHjpECp1k[/youtube]
I just wanna end with this.
There are no mistakes. There really aren't any cause you have a supreme destiny.
When you're in your little mind, in your little personality mind, where you're not centered and you really don't know who you are but you come from something greater bigger and we are all really the same.
You don't know that.
You get all flustered.
You get stressed all the time wanting something to be what it isn't.
There's a supreme moment of destiny calling on your life.
Your job is to feel that, to hear that, to know that.
And sometimes when you're not listening you get taken off track.
You get in the wrong marriage, the wrong relationship, you take the wrong job, yeah!
But it's all leading to the same path.
There are no wrong paths.
There are none.
There's no such thing as failure really cause failure is just that thing trying to move you in another direction.
So you get as much from your losses as you do from your victories.
Cause the losses are there to wake you up.
The losses are to say FOOL!
That is why you go to school!
So that CBS can call you!!
So when you understand that you don't allow yourself to be completely thrown by a grade, or by a circumstance because your life is bigger than any one experience.
And if I had, I always ask people on Super Soul Sunday, to tell me what would you say to your younger self?
Every person says in one form or another I would have said, “RELAX.”
Relax.
It's gonna be okay.
It really is going to be ok.
Because even if you're on a detour right now and and that's how you know!
When you're not at ease with yourself.
When you're feeling like…uhh..uhh…
That is the cue that you need to be moving in another direction.
Don't let yourself get all thrown off, continue to be thrown off course.
When you are feeling off course that's the key.
How do I turn around?
So when everybody was talking about when I started this network, if I had only known, Good Lord, how difficult it would be.
The way through the challenge is to get still and ask yourself what is the next right move.
Not think about, “Uhhh..” I got all of this to do.
What is the next right move?
And then from that space make the next right move and the next right move and not to be overwhelmed by it because you know your life this bigger than that one moment.
You know you are not defined by what somebody says is a failure for you because failure is just to point you in the right direction.
Start the discussion: What changes do you need to make to begin moving in the right direction? What types of failures have you stuck where you are? Share in the post comments, on Facebook, or Twitter.