Pathwalking 55
What about branching paths? How do you figure out if the branches are worth walking or need pruning off of your life paths?
This was an excellent question asked following Pathwalking 53. The answer is both extremely simple and potentially complex.
As you walk your path, you will come across forks, branches, crossroads, and various and sundry obstacles. How can you tell a diversion from a proper path? How do you choose which is the way to go?
Let’s break this down into steps. And remember – the answer will not always be simple nor straightforward. Different branches will present different issues/problems/opportunities, and thus different solutions.
What path am I on? This is an important question to ask, because it may explain why you reached this branch/fork/what-have-you. Were you straying? Did you lose your way? Is there an aspect of the path you have been walking that alters your course?
What options are in front of me? Does the alternative to the path you are on present a problem, an opportunity, an utterly unknown variable? Is it simply a matter of turn left versus turn right? Zig or zag? Which leads to the next question:
What are the consequences of the choices of path before me? Will there be any major ramifications from one choice over another? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill debating my options?
Feel out each path. I cannot stress enough the importance of this step. Analysis is all well and good, and very important – but if you do not feel your way forward, if you do not have a sense of good versus neutral versus bad with regards to the choices, then you will not likely be able to make the right choice.
I have said over and over through the course of Pathwalking that feeling is of the utmost importance. And when you reach a branch, or fork, or whatever, you have to feel out your answer. If your gut sinks at the thought of one option, but you start feeling energized and excited about another, which do you think you should choose?
Now what happens if your head is in conflict with your heart? Ask yourself why. Are they in conflict for any logical reason, or is it fear? Have you over-analyzed, and that is what is producing the conflict? Is there an outside influence causing the conflict?
Once you have worked on getting the head and the heart on the same page, the final step:
Choose a path. Which branch/fork/alternative do you take? Don’t stand too long at the precipice – make your choice and go with it.
What if I choose wrong? In all probability you will realize rather quickly if you’ve picked the wrong branch to walk. However, like all aspects of Pathwalking, even a wrong choice may lead you somewhere you need to be.
Pathwalking is about choosing a path, and walking a path, and whatever adventures happen along the way. But rather than walk along your life aimlessly or blindly, you are choosing what life might bring you. Life does not live you – you live your life.
These answers are extremely open ended. That’s true. And that is because what is right for me is not going to be right for you, or anyone else. But the various and sundry bits and pieces along the way will be similar. The steps may change order, and some may even be skippable, but they are going to help you make your choices. And this is true whether you are just starting your path, or already walking along it.
No matter whether your path is straight, bumpy, simple, complex, branched, forked, or what-have-you – the key to it all is choice. Pathwalking is about choosing for yourself life as you wish it to be. But what you find along the journey might be greater and more life-altering than your wildest dreams ever conceived.
Let me conclude this by asking a different question. Why choose your own path, rather than let your path choose you? My answer is this – because I want to control my destiny. I want to live MY life, as I want to live it, so that when I inevitably reach the end, rather than full of regret for what might have been, I will look back at all the wondrous experiences of my life fondly.
What will YOU do when your path branches?
This is the fifty-fifth 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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