Pathwalking 19
Pathwalking is not easy. In especial when the path you choose is not “the norm”. There will be resistance from multiple sources.
I have long believed that we are not simply here to follow rote routines. Life is so very much more than get out of bed, go to work, come home, have dinner, watch TV, go to bed, repeat. Yes, we all need to be able to make money to pay for the essentials, let alone the toys we love. But if you are spending half or more of your waking hours in a space where you are unhappy, is that really LIVING?
If you are fortunate enough to have a job you love, then you are walking your path. But if the conventional is not how you live – a “normal” nine-to-five job, keeping regular hours and routines and such – this presents more of a challenge. It will not be easy. I have always said, though, that nothing worth having is ever easy.
There will be resistance. But without resistance, you cannot gain traction. And that resistance will come from two very distinct and separate sources.
Resistance from Without. Your friends might think you are nuts. Your family might think you are being foolish. How can you make ends meet doing that? Why are you risking so much? How can you make such a foolish choice when so many things are uncertain in the economy, politics, etc? Don’t you think you should just find a normal job?
Resistance from Within. You will have doubts. You will question if you are, in fact, being foolish. Isn’t this risky? Should I really not be holding a regular day job? Am I working towards nothing real? Is the reward worth the risk? Am I alienating friends and family for my own vanity?
No one who ever did anything worthwhile heeded this resistance. Businesses have been launched from garages to achieve surreal levels of success, inventions have been created that we all use every day, ideas have been formulated that change the nature of how we perceive ourselves. These people walked their own paths – Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs…and look at how all that they did shaped our world.
But without that resistance, what do you have to push against for traction? Knowing, believing, and feeling your desire is all well and good – but sometimes it is that very resistance that pushes you into action.
You don’t believe I can do this? Well, I KNOW I can. So guess what? Here I go!
Sometimes this is about small things. Sometimes, these are the very things that make our life happen. But when you know the path you want to choose, when you choose to walk it, there is likely to be resistance. And that is not a bad thing.
Every week I post these, I reinforce my own desire to walk my path. Recently, I have been faced with a couple different situations that really made this more than just words – I was faced with an opportunity to really, truly, walk my path. There is resistance, within and without, but I know that I have chosen the right course.
How do I know this? Because I have not felt this content, this certain of myself in a long time. Of course there are moments of doubt, of course there are fearful moments where I wonder if I am making the right choices…but then I pause, take stock of my situation, and KNOW I am on my path. I know that like the action I took in placing these here every week, DOING this will lead me where I truly wish to go.
Not easy. But the journey, the day to day, has become FAR more interesting, much more inspiring. I can see that the reward, ultimately, will be worth it.
Choosing to walk your own path can be frightening. But it can also be exciting, liberating, and fulfilling. I know who and what I want to be. Do you?
This is the nineteenth entry in my series. These weekly posts are specifically about walking along the path of life, and my desire to make a difference in this world along the way. Thank you for joining me.
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