Photo by Allie Smith on Unsplash

by Linda Forrest

Our whole country is reinventing itself. There aren’t many people who see a clear path before them. They don’t know where they’ll go, and I sit here with the same opportunity. In the past, I felt there was no place for me like I didn’t fit in. Today, I know what I offer, and still, I look for an open door, a way to penetrate a market that seems readily available to so many.

I thought they were different—these two ideas—but they’re not. I still feel as though people aren’t really hearing what I’m saying, and I want that to be about them. It’s not. The seventy percent of people who don’t take advantage of this program are not at fault. I am. ‘Everyone’ is never a common denominator. I’m still not speaking clearly, not in enough clarity to have people really get what I’m saying.

I woke yesterday morning, and it was all gone, my genius, my ignorance, everything. Even the basic terminology I use, it was gone. The experience could have been alarming, but I knew the emptiness I was feeling presented my best opportunity for success.

I’m not as empty today, and I regret it. I feel the opportunity to rediscover myself is less now. I don’t know where to go, but the biggest mistake I could make is to expect I should.

Joseph Campbell said, “If 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.”

Regardless of our position in life, we all begin from the same place today. We all have the opportunity to succeed or fail. I don’t think it’s about seeing our destination. This is the mistake I was making all along, expecting to know where I would land.

The best approach to life is to stand before it like it’s a wall of furze. We don’t know the best path. We need to clear the way. We need to let our lives force us to take it one step at a time, one moment at a time. Mindful living is not just about being in the moment mentally or physically or even emotionally. It’s about letting each step we take according to where we are now, not for our desired destination.

Even if I began my journey with all the success in the world, I can’t possibly know where I’ll land. I think about the many restaurant owners today of the sports teams or the live performers. None of us knows what will happen next or when our lives will return to any semblance of normal. It could be months or even years for some before our feet are under us again. The model of moving blindly or too quickly has passed. All of us must take life one step at a time. We must focus on what we have today, and we must admit we can’t know where we’ll go tomorrow. This is evidenced in the world around us, now more than ever.

I wake every day with an opportunity to take a step in a new direction. We all have that opportunity. My next focus is clear. I will not assume I know which way I am going, and I will not go alone.

One of the difficult things about being a leader is assuming I must do it alone. Leadership can be a very isolating feeling, but there are other leaders, leaders who are more successful at leadership, leaders who can teach me how to lead. With them, I don’t need to know my next step. I will be guided to it, in the same way, I can guide others to theirs.

I’ve always relied on myself for moments of discovery for finding my own way. I wasn’t seeing the many people available to take my hand, a leader ready to say, “Walk this way.” I didn’t fully recognize that before today. All of the significant movement in my life was through someone else leading me, showing me how to do it. I became so adept at carrying myself forward, I had forgotten the catalysts. I forgot there was always a launching pad, some new discovery by something outside of myself that set me on course.

Today, I commit to that journey again, that new moment of discovery, and I hope you do too. Discover something new, and let the very best show you how to get there.