Pathwalking 168
You are not unsupported.
Even when you are walking your own path, you are never completely alone. You have supporters, you have resources available to you.
I have spent a great deal of time with people not understanding my choices. There have been many along the way who did not nor could not understand what I was about. And I will be the first to admit that it may have behooved me in the past to have paid greater heed to some of those inquiries. I may have come to recognize sooner that I was choosing more often than not to not choose at all.
Since I began to formulate and work with the notion of Pathwalking, I have come to understand who I am and better who I want to be. I have learned that when I make choices for myself I get better and more satisfying results. I am learning that my path is for me, but I do not have to take it alone.
I can’t make choices for anyone else, I cannot control anyone else’s life. I don’t want anyone else to make my choices for me, either.
What I do want, however, is support. I want to have resources I can turn to in order to help me better understand, choose, and walk my path.
It is important to distinguish between the need for support, and the need for recognition or even validation. Support is having a sounding board or a confidant or some other resource I can use to help me along my way, whereas recognition and validation are more about end results.
Support can come in a number of forms. I have many options to choose from.
I can find my support amongst the people in my life. My friends, my family, my coworkers, my acquaintances, even from time to time random strangers. There may be someone who will hear me out when I want to bounce ideas off of them, or there may be someone who will brainstorm with me to find solutions to problems.
It is imperative when turning to people for support to be aware of influence. Support is working with others to achieve your goals, and outside influences can sometimes misdirect you. Sometimes your support will actually redirect you when you are on the wrong path. When you turn to someone for support they might show you a need to do things differently than you are currently doing them.
Another form of support might come from more abstract resources. A book you read, an interview you listen to, a podcast, a blog. I may be a source of support on your path as I share mine.
I have often warned about outside influences, and it may seem rather frequently that I am suggesting allowing people outside of yourself to be a part of your path is a bad thing. Yet here I am telling you that you have support and can turn to people for support. Another paradox?
Yes, and no. We are social animals. Human beings need other human beings. We need and want companions, we desire communication. Yes this is a vast generalization, your own experience may be otherwise. But for the most part it is essential we have other people in our lives.
This is where it is good to know you have support. You need support. You need to have resources available to you in order to better find, understand, and walk your given paths in this life. You don’t have to go it alone, but it is important that you be the one making your choices.
This is where the difference between a supporter and an outside influencer come into play. If I am allowing another to make my choices for me, then I need to reconsider where my path might be going. If, however, I am conferring with a resource to make better choices for myself it is much more likely that I will be the maker of my own destiny.
Sometimes it can be difficult to tell the difference between a supporter and an outside influencer. The key to knowing what you have, whether a person or an object you have turned to, is asking the right questions. Is this what I want? Is this who I am? Is this where I want to be or go? Is this what I want to do with my life?
There are other questions I can ask, but the point is that I have support I can turn to, and so do you. We are not alone as we walk our paths, and we can and will find our way to taking and having control over our lives, and to discovering and making our own destinies.
I have some amazing people who support my paths. I have found and read and listened to numerous resources that have helped me to learn and grow. I am learning new things every day, and I believe that the path I am walking will let me find and create the person I most wish to be in this world.
Thank you for YOUR support.
Who and/or what supports you along your path?
This is the one-hundred sixty-eighth entry in my series. These weekly posts are specifically about walking along the path of life, and my personal desire to make a difference in this world along the way. Feel free to re-blog and share. Thank you for joining me.
The first year of Pathwalking, including some expanded ideas, is available in print and for your Kindle.
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