You enter the forest at the darkest point, where there is no path. Where there is a way or a path, it is someone else’s path. You are not on your own path. If you follow someone else’s way, you are not going to realize your potential. ~Joseph Campbell from A Joseph Campbell Companion
That pretty much sums it up… Are you following someone else’s path? If so, you simply aren’t going to realize your potential.
It takes courage to start on the path to figuring it all out. It might take working with a skilled Life Coach to help you along your way. It might take classes and books to gather fresh ideas and perspectives. It will take your committed to your journey of self discovery. Sometimes it might feel like you are turning the Titanic around in your life. That is o.k. Stay the path. It might be long and curving, but it will take you where you will find the place to realize your potential. It might be in your work. It might be a hobby. It might be in service to others. There are many places in life it can show up. Sometimes totally unexpectedly it drops into your life when you are not looking for it, and there it is. It might be some revelation or awakening that happens within you that brings you home to yourself and with a giant breath of relief you just know you have arrived.
Yes, we know that society does anything but encourage us to discover who we are and how to go out and give ourselves to the world. But that’s why they call it the “hero’s” journey. If it wasn’t a challenge, it’d be something like “the average person’s” journey. Not quite as inspiring, huh?
Find your own way. Engage in your hero’s journey! The world can use you.
Kathy Nelson is a Life Coach in San Diego, California