Stick to the Path, But Be Open to Detours Along the Way Is there a point when following your plan actually begins to hinder your growth? I'll explain. A conversation I had the other week illuminated something for me: do I ever cut myself off from potential opportunities because I refuse to veer from my "master plan"? I think sometimes I get so wrapped up in a number I want to reach, a quota I want to hit or simply an idea I feel I need to conquer, that by the
time I admit my priorities have changed so much precious time has gone by and who knows how many open doors I've walked past. It is important to have goals and intentions coupled with a solid action plan for how they might manifest, but it's also good to be mindful of developing "tunnel vision" and closing off to potentially new and better opportunities. I used to believe (and am only slowly letting go of the habit) that once I set up a goal I had
to accomplish it because then I had something to prove! (But to who?) No one is living my life except me. What if having that initial goal was the first step in figuring out what we truly want to be doing? What if it were the first step up a winding ladder leading to your dream life, and at one point you had the choice to veer off to the side where it looked sunny or keep climbing up the steep rungs.
Would you keep going up because that's what we're supposed to do? (Work very very hard and battle stress and fatigue in order to reach that idea we have of how things should look.) Or would you allow yourself to follow the sunshine to a different path even though technically it meant you stopped climbing "up"?
|
