Are You At A Crossroads In Your Life? (Part I)

Life Is a Highway is a great metaphor, not to mention an amazing song composed by Tom Cochrane—­two unrelated things that both refer to a traveling journey. However, unlike the song, life isn’t always upbeat and easygoing. Personally speaking, at one time during my journey, I reached a point where it felt like the air had slowly leaked out of my tires.

Getting behind the wheel held no excitement or anticipation for cruising or easing down the road of life I was presently on. In fact, I was on a bumpy journey traveling the same streets to nowhere and nothing. Somehow, I had lost my way… I was stuck in a rut and needed to change it up! Have you ever had the same experience?

Lewis Carroll from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, said it perfectly, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road’ll take you there.”

While sitting in the breakdown lane, I began to look around me. Others, I noticed, seemed to have a destination, a real purpose, a goal to where they were headed. The more I observed around me, the more I became aware of others having exciting adventures and experiences while on their life journey. I wondered—what did they know that I didn’t? What were they doing differently? What road had they traveled down that I missed? 

I found myself at a crossroads. I wondered, had  the stop sign called fear limited my vision like a torrential downpour, so seeing only a few feet in front of me at a time made me feel uncomfortable and afraid to keep moving forward? Could I trust that there would be signs along the way that would point where I needed to go to create a new and better life for myself?

I didn’t realize it at the time, but always having a goal in the works makes the journey of life challenging, passionate, scary, uncomfortable, and thrilling—all at the same time. Isn’t that what life is all about—always striving to reach our greatest potential, forging through life’s journey creating our own destiny on our own terms?

I was at a crossroads, and the path was diverging right in front of me. Do I continue on the same course, or do I veer off in another direction? I wondered.

I chose a different road this time. I was curious to discover what lies beyond the physical senses. I wanted to learn how to think from the inside out and learn how to use my mind to take more control of my destiny.

The flat tires were starting to fill with air, and the wheels were turning in more ways than one…

There are many ways to become inspired, and usually the following three ways are the most common:

• You meet a remarkable person, who is Living Above The Ordinary, that touches your life and coaches you in navigating the journey.

• An inspiring book finds its way into your hands and speaks in ways that resonate with your soul.

• A profound incident or encounter shows up that drastically influences the direction you take while on the trip.

Do you have a story about how maybe one of the three may have impacted your life? How it was the impetus that made you set a goal and then go after it until it was achieved? I would love to read about it.

All three of the aforementioned are what motivated and inspired me to change the direction of my life. I learned that I, just like everyone else, possessed a power within that has no equal.

Here’s how it happened: One day I was watching a video featuring Bob Proctor, who is one of the most respected and sought-after success teachers and motivational speakers in the world. He is also a master teacher of the law of attraction. I’d watched many thought-provoking, inspirational videos before, but none spoke to me like this man’s words did. He wasn’t trying to sell a product; he was trying to show the direction to a road less traveled, to a more focused, meaningful life journey. My intuition let me know that he was the mentor who would point me to the right road of life that I wanted to travel on. Do you have a mentor that steered you along the right path?

While watching the video, he was waving a book around declaring that it was the impetus that changed his life. It was called Think and Grow Rich written by Napoleon Hill around eighty years ago! Proctor said he has carried this book around in his suit pocket for over fifty-five years and still studies or refers to it every day.

I figured if someone believed in a book that much, maybe it would give me the impetus I needed to get in the car, pop the clutch, and venture down a different, unfamiliar road to a more worthwhile, purposeful journey.

I discovered through reading and studying that book, I could learn to control the mind to think correctly, and how most of the mental chatter going on in there isn’t really thinking at all. I could learn to change the paradigms that are roadblocks preventing me from being, doing, or having what is desired from life.

I never really thought much about exercising the mind by feeding it confident thoughts, exposing it to mystical philosophies, infusing it with spiritual knowledge, and being motivated to act on my best insights. I was introduced to positive thinking, goals, affirmations, visualization—and, of course, the law of attraction.

Hill’s philosophy impressed me so much that I decided to put some of his principles to the test. Armed with my newfound awareness, I was hoping to see the right opportunity when it presented itself, write the goal plan, and then take action…

This way of thinking really does work. I know because I tested it. I got the results I wanted. You can, too. You can find out how in the next blog post—Part II. In the next blog, I will share a true example of how it worked for me. In the meantime, think about a transition you want to make and put it in the forefront of your mind.