Most of us have experienced challenges throughout our lives. That’s just a fact of life. I appreciate some have had more than their share. I like to reflect on those challenges/obstacles from time to time. In doing so I can identify the learning that was present for me. Needless to say when one obstacle appears directly after another, it can be very soul destroying and possibly lead one to say “why me” or “when will I get a break”.
I am a huge fan of Oprah Winfrey, I can really connect with most of her theories and rationalisations. I listened to an interview she had with an American psychologist Caroline Myss some time ago (link here) The interview was all about the ‘path’. Whether we call it the path we’ve taken by chance, or the path we chose to take. It focused on how we manage that ‘path’.
The psychologist referred to the crossroads that we sometimes arrive at in life. She referred to these crossroads or slip roads as being choices in our lives. Yes we can choose to go left or right or indeed vere off down a different direction altogether. She claims that there’s no wrong direction. That each of us is exactly where we need to be or should be at any moment in time. She also stated that we are never stuck to that path, we can change direction at any time we choose.
I believe that’s the beauty of life . We can create our own destiny. We can either sit and complain about how terrible our jobs are, how lonely we are, how hurt we feel or not having enough money etc. Or we can chose to change whatever it is were not happy about.
For a moment, picture your life as a motorway. When things are good, we can go at high speed without any interruptions. Road works/blockages then appear and we are diverted, it may be into uncharted territory? It will likely lengthen our journey, it will no doubt interrupt our plans. But it also gives us time to view the road from a different perspective, and it may bring us to a new exciting destination. We may even arrive at a ’roundabout’ with three or four choices of exits?
We cannot predict the road ahead, the important message here is, stop and think, and make the best decision you can based on the information you have at that time. It doesn’t mean you can’t divert again if required. When trying to change direction its useful to ask yourself the following questions:
- What positive can I take from this?
- What message is in this for me?
- How can I use this to my advantage?
- Is this a path I’ve been down before?
- Am I on the right path?
- Will this path lead me closer to my destiny?
I’ve attached a three minute clip of Oprah describing our path below, please do have a listen.