Sorry for the cynical note. I do recognize it in my own voice, but that isn't really the direction I am headed here. I teach leaders. I consider myself a leader. But a leader can no longer be defined as one who goes ahead to blaze a trail, expecting others to follow. Leadership today is much, much more complex! So it is for path making. Oh, I can give you MY five steps to happiness, but they simply can't be transposed onto your life. We are on very different paths, and one size doesn't fit all. The path that will lead me home may well get you lost!
As an adult, I have often been loathe to ask directions, even when I am clearly lost. I'd almost always rather figure it out myself, even if it means wandering a bit. Indeed, I think I even LIKE being lost now and then. Some of my greatest discoveries have come when I'd lost the well beaten path and wandered into unknown territory.
When I reread these words below from Joseph Campbell, I smiled to think of my own struggles to create a clear path, and my own courageous wanderings. I share the words here that you may take heart yourself:
"If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it is not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That is why it's your path."
So, please understand that if you ask me to point out your path, or give you the five steps to happiness, I will probably turn your request back to you with a question. We really needn't see all our destinations. And we can usually find for ourselves what the next step on the path will be. I trust you will find your way, one step at a time, even as I am finding mine.
"Wander, your footsteps are the road, nothing more; there is no road -- you make the road by walking." Antonio Machado
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