The Roads You Travel To Achieve Your Goals

Each moment, you are walking along a path.  You might not always know where this road will lead, but you keep putting one foot in front of the other in order to achieve your goals.  Let’s talk about the roads you travel to achieve your goals.

Roads

Some of these roads are dark, poorly lit, and covered in fog where you can barely see the next step.  Think spooky like Halloween where the path is even a bit scary.  You want to hurry down these roads to get to somewhere safer.  Other roads are brightly lit, clear, open fields where you can see for miles ahead and feel the sun on your face.  These are the more relaxing journeys in life.  You can almost take your time and soak up every moment.  But, sometimes you’re going to have to choose which road to take and it’s not always the easy one.

Crossroads

There will be times when you come to a crossroads in your life and you’ll have to choose which path to continue forward on.  This is where you can get in your head of trying to decide which way to go.  You try to over analyze if you take this road then this will happen or if you go this route then you’ll experience these things.  However, no path is set in stone.  You’re still going to experience speed bumps, detours, and challenges along the way.  It’s almost like walking on the yellow brick road thinking you’ve got it all figured out only to come to a point where the bricks completely end.  Now what?  That’s for you to decide what to do next.

The Long And Winding Road

You can choose to take the long and winding road.  This is the road that zigs and zags.  It seems to take forever to get to where you want to go.  In fact, you may be adding more time to your journey by overthinking, procrastinating, or just not taking action at all towards your goals.  At one point, you may think you’re making progress only to then feel like you’re going backwards as you wind around another corner.  The long and winding road tests your patience, perseverance, determination, and will power to keep going.  You often feel like giving up because it’s taking too long to achieve your goals.

The Road To Ruin

Next, is the road to ruin.  This is the path of frantic destruction.  You quickly work to achieve your goals.  You try and outsmart the system, take shortcuts, and you may even cut other people off in order for you to get farther ahead.  You lose a lot of friends on the road to ruin.  You think you’re making progress because things are coming together so quickly, but once you reach the top, you realize it’s a rather lonely place.  You may have ruined your reputation, friendships, and lost support along the way.  The road to ruin shows promise of success, fortune, and achievement but it’s at a really high price.

Easy Street

Then, there’s taking the easy street.  The road that has as little bumps and turns as possible.  It’s as close to a straight line as it gets.  However, easy street doesn’t stretch you, challenge you, or really help you to achieve your goals.  You’re just coasting through life even though it feels easy.  It may seem like a good idea to walk along easy street, catch your breath, and just enjoy the slower pace.  But, if you want to achieve big things in your life you’re going to have to choose another road.

The Road Less Traveled

That leads you to taking the road less traveled.  This is the road that doesn’t have many reviews.  It looks a little scary and is overgrown with shrubs.  You’re not quite sure where it leads but you have to carve your own path.  It’s not a road that many people have taken and that’s okay because it’s your life.  This is the road you want to take.  Make it your own.  Choose your own direction, zig when you want to zig, and zag when you want to zag.  Stop when you feel like it and push to keep going when you need to.  You’re not going to see many people on this road.  But, those you do, are here to achieve big things in life.  The people who take the road less traveled are the ambitious, the doers, the people who seek greatness, and want to achieve big dreams.

You get to choose which road you travel.  Sure, there will be speedbumps and detours along the way.  You’ll come to a crossroads and question which way to go.  But, you know you’ll be able to figure things out.  You don’t just choose easy street because it’s easy.  You also don’t speed down the road to ruin just because it looks like a quick way to success.  You’re here to do the work and prove that you can achieve your goals.  You’re not detoured when you’re on the long and winding road.  You get out of your own way and take the road less traveled to achieve your goals in life.

Take Action Challenge

Choose Your Road

Step 1: Find Your Current Road

Think about one goal you're currently working towards or one you've been avoiding.

Ask yourself, what road are you currently traveling to achieve this goal?

Are you on the long and winding road, overthinking and procrastinating?
Are you taking easy street, staying comfortable instead of challenging yourself?
Are you speeding down the road to ruin, trying to achieve everything as quickly as possible?
Or are you taking the road less traveled, creating your own path and moving forward despite uncertainty?

Be honest.  There’s no wrong answer.

Step 2: Identify The Detours

Think about what's been slowing you down or pulling you off your path.

Write down the biggest speed bumps, detours, or obstacles you've encountered.

Then ask, are you facing a real obstacle or are you creating the detour yourself?

Notice where overthinking, procrastination, fear, perfectionism, or the desire for an easier path might be keeping you from moving forward.

Step 3: Choose Your Direction

Imagine you're standing at a crossroads.

You don't need to know exactly where every road will lead.  You just simply need to decide which direction feels right for your life and your goal right now.

Ask yourself, if you stopped trying to predict the entire journey, which direction would you choose?

Write down the path you want to take.

Step 4: Take The Road Less Traveled

Now choose one action that moves you onto that path.

It might feel uncomfortable.  You might not know exactly what will happen next.  That's okay.

Your challenge is to take the next step without needing to see the entire road ahead.

Step 5: Keep Walking

At the end of the week, reflect on your journey.

Ask yourself:

• What progress did you make?
• Where did you encounter a speed bump or detour?
• Did you overthink any decisions?
• Did you choose the easy path when you really wanted something more?
• What did you learn?
• What's the next step on your road?

Remember that you don't have to know exactly where the road leads to keep walking.  You can always carve another path.