What If the Right Path Chosen Yesterday is the Wrong Path Today?
Right and wrong are seldom written in stone. The path will frequently change.
How old are you? Do you think that you are who you were when you were 10 years old? How about 20 years old? Do you think you (or your path) are who you were even a year ago?
The point is that you are always changing. Sometimes, it’s barely noticeable. Other times, it’s sudden. Some change is desirable – some less so. But change can, will, and does happen.
This is because change is the one and only constant in the Universe.
Some people rue this fact. They like things how they are and often how they believe that they’ve always been. Except there is no “how it’s always been.”
The world of the 1970s is vastly different from the world of the 1990s. Similarly, the world of today is not the world of the 1990s. Elements are shared – but there are more differences than similarities.
This is evidence of the constancy of change. And no matter how tightly you hold onto something – it can, will, and does change.
Everybody goes from birth to life to death. Period, end of story. That is constant. However, what passes during the time from birth to life to death varies wildly – and frequently shifts and changes. No two lives, no matter how similar, are perfectly identical.
Why am I going on about this? Because when it comes to conscious reality creation, manifestation of the tangible from the intangible, and choosing to live mindfully, it’s an imperfect process. And it’s subject to change. Recognizing and acknowledging this truth makes it far easier to roll with the inevitability of change.
Along that line – today’s right path could be tomorrow’s wrong path.
Choosing is seldom one and done
Very few choices in life are utterly complete, one and done, once made. That’s because change is constant, and life is an always-flowing river.
Life – from birth to death – is made up of choices made and not made, paths taken and not taken, good and bad, happy and sad, smart and stupid, and everything in between these extremes. Life is a constant, flowing river of facts, figures, logic, emotion, reason, unreason, and experiences.
Everyone has a life. That’s true. But what that looks like is unbelievably variable. What lights me up and makes me happy might bore the crap out of you and make you miserable. Music that makes me want to sing might make you want to run screaming in agony. That’s utterly normal.
When you decide to apply mindfulness and use conscious awareness to choose a path – any path – in your life, that choice will have a result. Good or bad, consequential or intentional, big or small, desired or not desired – your choices will amount to something.
But most choices, when made, are not one-and-done. Even if you cannot undo a choice – which is a frequent occurrence – you can always choose anew.
Choices for your path are made all the time
From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed, you make choices. The majority of these are subconscious. You’ve made a lot of your regular choices part of your rote, routine, and habits. I don’t know about you, but I put very little to no thought into brushing my teeth, starting the coffee maker, feeding my cats, brushing my hair, and doing similar daily activities.
The differences between these choices – and mindful, consciously aware choices – are a matter of outcome. The rote and routine have a seldom-changing outcome. For example, if I set the coffeemaker up the night before, pushing the button will grind the beans and brew my coffee. This will just be how it goes – unless, one day, the coffeemaker breaks (which, for the record, would be a VERY sad day).
Choices made for your path are directional and intentional. For example – to have more books to publish and sell, I must choose to take the time to write. If I don’t write, I can’t produce new books. Choosing to write today is a choice for the path that I’m walking.
Some choices are fairly easy, such as the above. Others are less so – because they come with a bigger consequence, greater change, increased risk of failure or success, and so on.
Proposing marriage, buying a house, selling all your possessions and traveling the world, quitting a secure job for something less secure, and the like are along this line.
These are the choices that can lead to second-guessing, uncertainty, doubt, and other concerns.
Hence the question – what if the right path chosen yesterday is the wrong path today?
The pendulum is in perpetual motion
There are no guarantees in life. Save one. Death at the end.
Hence, choices for the path you made yesterday that seemed right could be wrong today. Or tomorrow.
That’s due in part to change. Circumstances of today might have changed from yesterday. The unexpected can come up, and yesterday’s great idea might be less so today.
The path that seemed right yesterday might be wrong today. Or the path you set out on two years ago might not be right today. That’s going to happen. You don’t always reach the end of a given path – because no path is utterly certain or guaranteed.
However – why your path shifted from right yesterday to wrong today might be an impermanent, temporary matter. Only via mindfulness can you know if today’s seemingly wrong path is truly wrong, or if you’ve reached an obstacle or hiccup that can be overcome. Few paths are without obstacles, challenges, and moments where they feel wrong – but in truth, aren’t.
Conscious awareness is how you identify this truth.
The pendulum of life is in perpetual motion. It swings between the extremes of the Universe. Yes and no, positive and negative, good and bad, up and down, and on and on. That’s part of why yesterday’s right path is wrong today.
So what do you do when this is the case?
Adapt, overcome, and/or change, alter, or re-choose your path
Right and wrong are seldom written in stone. The path will frequently change.
Via mindfulness, you become consciously aware, here and now. That conscious awareness – mindfulness – begins within.
Hence, you know what you’re thinking, what and how you’re feeling, what intentions you have, and the action you choose or don’t choose.
From the internal mindfulness, the external becomes clearer. Awareness within leads to awareness without. Thus, knowing your conscious self – your mindset, headspace, psyche – you gain clarity from within of the world without.
With that clarity, you can better see what does and doesn’t impact you – directly, indirectly, or not at all. That, then, lets you see if yesterday’s right path has become wrong today. And if it has – what options that you have to change, alter, or choose a new path (or if it’s temporary and not truly a wrong path, make necessary adjustments).
The path you chose long ago is likely changed – at least in some ways – from what it was. Thus, what was right then (yesterday) isn’t right now (today). But you have the power to adapt and overcome. Work with change – or against it in a generative way.
No matter what challenges you face – you can choose the paths for your life experience.
Can you see how your path can, will, and does change – and that you change with it?
This is the five hundred and eighty-eighth exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – using mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.
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