Pathwalking 166
What is it I want from my life? Where do I want to take this path to? Who do I really want to be?
Now that I have identified the real fear that causes me to sabotage myself, that being the fear of loss, what chances do I want to take that would lead to succeeding or failing? What is it I want to gain from my success or failure?
This is a very hard question for me to answer. Because I have lived so much of my life making moves on the perceived whims of other influences, and because I have allowed myself for so long to stand at crossroads or take minimal actions so as to avoid loss, the specific what of the path I wish to choose lacks simplicity. I know from my experience that I want to choose my own path, however.
Pathwalking is my philosophy for how I want to live my life. I choose my own path, I choose my own destiny. Pathwalking, as stated time and again, is about choice and control and not letting the outside influences dictate my life for me.
I have not just crafted my philosophy out of thin air. I have personal life experience of course, but I have also listened to and read a number of things that have influenced the formulation of this idea. My source materials include The Secret, Tony Robbins, The Four Agreements, Paulo Coelho, The Dali Lama, Neil deGrasse Tyson and many other philosophers, scientists and great thinkers. I have taken lessons learned from these sources and more, as well as my own experiences with and belief that Consciousness ultimately Creates Reality to create Pathwalking.
This is the abstract concept, the framework in which I want to live my life. The path, the journey itself is of equal or greater importance than the goal, because the majority of life happens in the journey. For that reason, the journey cannot be aimless and meandering, which is why we have goals.
I use a lot of metaphors in explaining the what of Pathwalking, but I seldom get into the specifics of the journey and the goals. What is it that actually makes up the path, and how is choosing to be a Pathwalker different from not making such a choice?
Back to my original questions. What is it I want from my life? Personally, I want to be happy. In order to be happy, I know that I want to feel free, I want to love and be loved, and I want to feel successful. These are the big, overarching intangibles I want to have in my life. While the most abstract concept is happiness, I have also identified that to feel happy I need to also feel free, to feel love and loved, and to feel successful.
Where do I want to take this path to, and in setting a goal who do I really want to be? That is the crux, because this is where there are specific and tangible concepts that will lead to the intangibles. What is it I need to do daily in order to feel free, to feel love and loved and to feel successful so that ultimately I will feel happy? This last question is one I should not just ask today, I should ask it EVERY SINGLE DAY because the answer will change. Despite patterns that are repetitive, no two days are precisely alike. Ever. The pattern feels repetitive and lacking in freshness and choice when I do not ask these questions.
What is it I need to do daily in order to feel free, to feel love and loved and to feel successful so that ultimately I will feel happy? My daily needs are not the same as yours, of course, but I want to still share what I need to do. And I say need to do because I have not been making this a daily practice…and it is time I begin to do so. This practice I believe is a key to unlocking and removing the fear of loss that the fear of failure and success has so long been masking.
To feel free I need to meditate daily, I need to give time to writing or editing one of my works of fiction, and I need to remind myself that I am in control of this path. I need to not focus on money, on issues at work, and on concerns with future plans but instead focus on abundance, the people I work with and today instead of the future. I believe if I pay attention to this rather than just let it be, I can remove the intangible and sometimes paralyzing fear of loss.
To love and feel loved I need to tell the people I love that I love them. I need to pet my cats and listen to them purr and I need to consciously avoid gossip and negativity about people and things. This one is the simplest for me to work with.
To feel successful is frankly tied directly to what I need to do in order to feel free. I need to edit and write, I need to not focus on becoming a bestselling author but instead focus on the fact that I successfully post to this blog twice a week, that I have published my first fantasy novel, that I am completing editing on the second novel, that I have completed the third novel in that series, the first novel in another series and still have novels underway in both. I need to view what I perceive oftentimes as minor success for the more significance they hold. I also need to know that because I love and am loved that this also makes me successful.
What it all boils down to is this – I need to ask myself daily – what is it I need to do today so that ultimately I will feel happy? Today’s answer may differ from tomorrow’s, but the question needs to be asked, because the answer will let me change my focus so that the intangible fears can be eliminated and replaced instead by opportunities.
What questions do you need to ask yourself daily to achieve your goals?
This is the one-hundred sixty-sixth 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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