The Map to the Path Less Traveled
To be remembered for generations, to be written in history books, and to change your life and the world, you need to go down the path that hasn’t been walked on much or that hasn’t been walked on at all.
You need to step on the weeds, sneak around the poison ivy, and try to avoid the fallen tree trunks that trip you up along this rarely traveled path.
Most would love to be a trailblazer, but they just don’t know where to start and they’re scared to go down a route that’s often not lit.
Well, there’s no longer a need to be scared and now you’ll know where to start, because this is the map to the path less traveled.
First and foremost…
You need to know what your destination is, before you even know where it is because on the path less traveled you might not even know where a destination lies until you’re standing on it.
To figure what your destination consists of, requires you to think about your life’s big questions and force you to do a lot of self-reflecting. There’s really no avoiding it.
Fellow blogging friend Chris Guillebeau published a must read ebook aptly entitled, “A Brief Guide to World Domination.” In this ebook, Chris hits the nail directly on the head especially with page eleven. He states “The Two Most Important Questions in the Universe:”
1. What do you really want to get out of life?
2. What can you offer the world that no one else can?
These questions (or other similar questions) are essential to ask yourself and answer, to figure out what your aim is.
When you ask yourself these two questions you’re most likely going to have several detailed answers, which is completely fine; I had many myself that added up to two larger, broader answers.
Push aside fear
One of the biggest fears of those who want to walk down the less traveled path is fear of failure. The fear grows from the misconception that doing what has proven to work almost always guarantees success.
Unfortunately (fortunately for you) that’s not the case. Doing what has already proven to work or that has already been done gives someone more of a chance of failure. Or at least when success is achieved by going down the main path, it’s mediocre.
Jonathan Mead wrote an article about this with a thought-provoking title; “The Number One Dream Killer: Doing What Works.”
Be cautious of shortcuts
As you walk down the path less traveled you may see shortcuts that look inviting but really lead to a dead end.
Success comes from walking miles farther than those who quit or take the shortcuts.
Don’t look for signs
There are no road signs on the path less traveled, not even rusty, weathered down ones, to help you. You’ve got to see and find other paths yourself. Sometimes the opportunity to a path is hard to see. It might be covered under dirt, dust, debris, and tall weeds, but lead to an oasis.
The terrain changes
The map and landscape to the path less traveled is strange. It’s basically alive and changes its shape much like sand dunes, depending upon the person walking it.
For one person there might be flat ground right in the beginning; for another a deep valley; or a hill for someone else.
Every landscape and map for each person does have its fair share of hills, meadows, rocky areas, valleys, and even mountains; just at different times and in different locations.
It’s lonely looking forward…
But looking back, the path that you started begins to receive more and more walkers. You’re leading by example and these are your followers.
If you’re a trailblazer, you’re going to have admires (along with critics) and it’s your obligation to encourage them to veer off and start their own paths, instead of copying you exactly.
The map never ends
Some may say that the path less traveled ends up at death like any other way of living; but they are wrong. There’s no final destination, unless you give up.
After you reach the end of one path a new one needs to be created right there, by you. You need to conjure up new ideas and goals to aim for so that you don’t settle down and quit.
And when you do go on to the next life, the next world, the afterlife, heaven, or wherever you believe in; your map falls into the hands of a new traveler. It could be one of your followers, someone who reads about you in a history book, or one of your relatives. They’ll take it and start their own paths.
Related articles:
- 5 easy pieces to piecing together your purpose in life
- The art of getting off your ass
- How to graduate the School of Hard Knocks with a 4.0
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2 Responses to “The Map to the Path Less Traveled”
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“Be cautious of shortcuts”
- I agree. In fact, there is no short cut to success.
Sometimes, I think there might appear to be a short cut to success, but it’s actually ends up being a longer road in the end.
-Andrew