When you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path.
Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.
Sometimes we get lost in life because we are trying to step into someone elses footprints. We believe that the path of someone else, a path that has led them to success, is also a path that can lead us to success. In a world with so many people and their different journey’s, your path has still not been walked yet. There is still is space for a new path, yours.
I have come to learn that creating our own path is a process. We don’t just suddenly meet our path at some point in our story, we create it by following our interests and curiosities.
My life after I left school has been very influential but it’s been a time without any direction, I let myself carry by the wind, by life.
I wasn’t intending to find my own path, let alone create it, I was just living day by day – One day at a time, no direction, no goals. Just distant dreams of a better life with more freedom and ease.
I love the metaphor of a sailboat drifting out in the open ocean without having the sails set, just letting the wind carry it. Learning how to survive the storms and the rough waves, learning how to swim. It is an essential time of growth, we are testing the waters of life and experiencing it fully with all it has to offer, the beautiful, the painful, the uncertain. At some point a longing for direction creeps up on us without announcement. We meet this longing when it becomes a strong desire of change, freedom and purpose. We are setting the sails of our life boat and steering towards a desired destination, a dream, a path, a knowing.
Life offers us the gift of free choice, we have the freedom to create any path we want, to experience ourselves in any roles or situations that we believe will make us wiser and carry us further.
With a gentle voice life whispers to us: So I offer you a path of endless possibilities, the freedom to choose again and learn from the choices of your past. The time has come to embrace the courage and desire within you so that it may take you to your true path, home, to yourself.
Between walking someone elses path and choosing to create our own path is a time of transition. This time has been the most difficult in my life so far. There has been a lot of uncertainty, doubt and darkness. Darkness isn’t bad, it is simply the absence of light, a void. It is only in darkness that we can learn how to trust life and it’s uncertainty. I like the following quote that I read in the book Braiding sweetgrass:
Whether we jump or are pushed, or the edge of the known world crumbles at our feet, we fall, spinning into some place new and unexpected. Despite our fears of falling, the gifts of the world stand by to catch us.
I just realize that I am using a lot of metaphors, but that is okay since I love telling visual stories.
I love to see our life as a garden. A garden that is filled with beautiful, vibrant flowers and plants when we are born.
When we grow up most of us experience trauma or learn to not be who we really are, to be more quiet and behave, to be who the world wants us to be. As children we don’t allow ourselves to be happier than our family, because children are very adaptive to fit into their environment.
Many of these flowers aren’t being nurtured anymore and weeds, beliefs of the seriousness of the world, start to grow. By the time we are adults our garden might look like a mess. To create a beautiful garden once again, one like the one we had when we were young children we first have to get rid of the weeds, the beliefs that life is so serious and happiness is a privilege for lucky people.
Once we understand that we can create a garden of our dreams, a life of our dreams, we can start to plant seeds.
The Desire for certain experiences in life are those seeds and after we planed them we have to nourish them. Through our attention, time and hope we nurture those seeds and they start to grow.
The dreams and desires slowly start to manifest in our reality. Over time those seeds that we have planted become vibrant and start blooming. We become master gardeners and feel happy and at peace, knowing that we are evolving with our garden. It is a reflection of our inner world, one filled with hope, trust and beauty.
Since a few months ago I am consciously creating my own path, following little curiosities and interests.
For a few years I wanted to make videos and create my own website with articles but there were many obstacles, so I continued to let life take me places, I let life take it’s course without really participating.
Now I know that I have a lot of influence on where I can go in life. The first steps are very uncomfortable, a feeling of uncertainty that I haven’t felt before but it feels so meaningful. I don’t know where my path leads me but I also don’t have to know, I just need to do my part and take the next step.
How can we create our own path?
How can we create our own path?
There is no one right answer to this question, it is simple and complex at the same time.
If you want to hear the simple answer I would say it is to follow our own heart, our intuition.
If you wanted to hear the complex answer I would tell you to follow your passion, curiosity and fear. In the beginning there might not always be a strong passion or a clear knowing what our passion and talents are. Our purpose will reveal itself with every step we take. But there are always curiosities and interests.
A subtle desire to try something creative or learn something new. Follow this feeling, it is a hint that will guide you to the next step. Every step that we take on our own path is supported by a feeling of warmth and hope. We have to be willing to try new things and to keep on lerarning when it feels uncomfortable, growth doesn’t happen when everything is certain, it happens when we trust in uncertainty. Our mindset is of great importance because what we believe in will determine how we will act and what steps we will take.
Committing to changing our mindset and believe in ourselves, believing that anything is possible and that we deserve to live a rich and fulfilled life is the foundation of a great mindset.
It is really about taking one step at a time. Do something every day that inspies you or something that you are curious about and that feels a little scary. Let me tell you, it’s worth it. Take a moment in silence and feel into your heart. What makes you feel excited about the furture, who do you want to be?
When you get clear on a vision that makes you feel excited, write down a list or make a plan of small steps that you can take now and take the first one. Take the next one tomorrow. You might want to adjust your vision along the path, but that is okay. The rest of the path will reveal itself, it will unfold right in front of your eyes. I can not tell you how your path looks like but I can tell you one thing: It will be so worth it and rewarding, it will bring you fulfillment, abundance and most importantly excitement for life.
Our path has not been walked yet, so it is our resposibility to choose a direction, test the ground, take the first steps and never look back. When we are committed to walking our own path, life will reward us in miraculous ways, it gives us the best views, the strongest sails, a hand full of courage and wonderful encounters that will guide us along the way. Life will give us a bag filled with seeds of the most beautiful flowers and plants for us to create a garden of wonder and happiness.
