Charging Through Life

When Dorothy crash-landed in the wonderful world of color she quickly demonstrated some good crisis evaluation and planning: she assessed her surroundings, made friends with the locals, learned about available resources, and put together a plan.
She had a goal: get the fuck home.
She had a destination or means: The Wizard.
And she had a clear path to follow: the yellow brick road.

Why in life are we not given such bright, clear, and well-groomed paths to follow on the way to our destinations? Hell, why do so many of us not even have a destination in life to follow a path towards?

I set out a goal for myself a number of months ago; it was a goal to change my life for the better. Alright, I admit, I make a lot of goals and fully commit to about half of them. But that's the point! Either my goals aren't genuine or I easily get distracted along the very long path to reaching them. This blog is littered with examples of me going merrily along my way, skipping along a path to reach one of my goals when.... *Squirrel!*

For the record, my goal is to create a lifestyle for myself. I'm not chasing bright lights or fame, I'm after a better way to live an above-average life where I'm happy, successful, and comfortable. After eleven years in the corporate rat race I've discovered the very opposite path to reaching that goal; and after traveling the wrong way for a number of years, have finally turned myself around. Owning my own company and being my own boss may very well be the "man behind the curtain" that will get me what I want out of life.

But I'm being distracted. Life is distracting me from my shinny yellow path. The looming foreclosure, a lack of reliable income, feelings of inadequacy and doubt have all become these flying monkeys sent to drag me off of my path and into the brush. I'm expending thought, energy, worry, time and resources on these 'things.'

My house is a thing. My TV is a thing. Money is a thing. I live in a world where things are in abundance. And I'm resourceful enough to acquire things when I need them. But these things come and these things go. They are in abundance if you remain creative. It's an annoying fact of life that you deal with acquiring and loosing things all the time, and then you move on. It's when you become distracted and consumed with the unknown that you run the risk of getting stopped, stuck, turned around, or lost.

While things may be in abundance, what is truly scarce in this world are paths to a destination. Everyone seeks a path, a fresh start, a direction, a purpose, a meaning. And when those lucky few people stumble upon a path for their life, it's the 'things' that get in the way and distract them (the money, the kids, the relationships, the house...) Sure these things seem important at the time. Keeping my home from being sold at auction in 20 days is extremely important right now! But how much control, relative to the amount of distraction I'm allowing it to cause my life, do I honestly have in preventing the loss of this thing - my house? I'm no lawyer, I'm no mortgage lender, I'm no business expert. And yet the threat of foreclosure right now is pulling at me in every direction, as if the straw stuffing is literally being pulled right from my head.

You can afford to loose things but you can't afford to loose the path.

Kenyon believes in me and believes I'm on the right path and has told me to stop worrying about the things in my life. Stuff is going to happen to the things, he says, but I can't allow these things to distract me from my path. He said that there are a few people in the world who have the talent and skills to make stuff happen in life - and happen in a big way. He believes I am one of those people.

Proof positive, once again, that it's Kenyon who is the one on this journey with the big brain.... and the big heart!