Do You Know Where You’re Going?

*Don’t stop until they see what you see. You can’t change the direction of the path you take, but so long as you can adjust your sails along the way, the winds of ambition will still take you where you want to go.*

The successful people–you know the one’s that always seem to be in control. What’s their secret? Why do things seem to fall in the lap of the lucky few? Why do some get all the breaks in life? What’s really going on here? Well… I think I have an answer for you.

The primary difference separating a successful person from one that spends their life struggling is that the successful person knows where they are going.

If you don’t know the reason why you get up in the morning, this post is for you. If you ask yourself why you go to work everyday and the only response you can muster is, “because that’s what everyone else does,” it is about this that I write to you today. I dare you–go out and randomly ask people why they get up in the morning and nine out of ten times, the response will be some variation of “because I have to go to work” or “because that’s what everyone else does.”

Now, that said, there’s nothing wrong with being lost or lacking a sense of direction so long as you are searching for your purpose. In fact, if you feel this way, then consider yourself to be one of the lucky ones. Lucky, because there’s something inside of you gently whispering to you that you should be doing more with your life. You instinctively know that you have unique talents and special gifts lying dormant just waiting to be exercised and applied to an endeavor that is specific to you. Whenever you are being nudged or pushed, and it’s coming from within, take that to mean that you really are meant to serve a higher purpose beyond your current output.

I understand the helplessness associated with wanting something so badly, yet not having a clue as to how you’re going to get it. I say helplessness as opposed to hopelessness, because while I felt like I couldn’t get to where I wanted to be, I at least knew where I wanted to go. When you don’t know where you want to be in life, it’s easy for hopelessness to creep in because you have no purpose and therefore no direction. I know how it feels in day-to-day life where the minutes can seem like years but the years go by like minutes. Worse still, when you finally come to, you wonder where all the time has gone and further still, how and why you’re still struggling as you always have.

You are meant to be moving. That driving force that powers you exists for you to carry out your purpose in life. This is why knowing where you’re going is so important. Your purpose is the reason why you are here. We are all here to do something special. I used to focus exclusively on the “how’s.” Things like: How long will this all take? How will I get there? How will I pay for all this? How will I make it until I get to where I want to be? The questions poured down the mountain slopes of my thoughts like an avalanche of flaming snowballs…

You can work out many different paths as to how you’ll get there even when the odds are against you. I learned to stop focusing on the “how’s” and started looking for ways to prepare myself. Preparation is key, whether you know your purpose or whether you’re still searching for it. What you should be looking to do is setting the desired tone for your future. You can’t do anything to undo a mistake you made yesterday or ten years ago. The past is the past. But in the here and now present, you can prepare for your future.

How you prepare yourself everyday is a reflection of the future that is to come.

When you invest in yourself you are dwelling in the pursuit of excellence. This is special and not to be overlooked. The pursuit of excellence requires patience because you will be tested. It is not a test of strength so much as it is a trial in which your endurance will be challenged. It takes focus to summon the dedicated attention required of you. Even if you are naturally gifted out of this world, unless you have the go-the-distance belief in yourself to endure until the end of your trial, you will fall short. So if you find yourself lacking faith in yourself, you have to shore up that weakness.

To be truly prepared for something, one must actually expect it. One cannot be prepared for something while secretly believing it will not happen (trust me when I say I’ve tried that–I ended up failing every time). Negative thoughts coming from within your own mind are your worst adversary. When you constantly replay the narrative in your mind of fear, worry, and doubt, your life will continue to manifest more and more fear, worry, and doubt. Allow me to explain.

Feeling lost is actually worse than being lost.

Sometimes it’s harder to cope with the pitfalls and setbacks one imagines than with the reality. Life will return to you in exceeding abundance whatever you replay inside your mind. I challenge you to run some experiments on yourself for an extended period and see your life begin to change before your eyes. The next time you feel lost I challenge you to begin practicing what and how you would feel if you were found. Close your eyes and see the person you would be if you had all the answers and held complete control over everything in your life. Imagine yourself being able to overcome every single challenge that foolishly lines up blocking your path. As you’re doing this, despite your eyes being closed, never in life will you begin to see more clearly the person you truly are!

I can not tell you how this works because I am still trying to work out an explanation that makes sense ( I will present my theory in a subsequent post:), but I can tell you that if done correctly, you will see more of yourself with your eyes closed than you ever will with them open.

Remember: A smart mind knows its limits. A wise mind knows it has none. When you know that you were designed and created to do something that only you can do, you know where you are going. Whatever you think about yourself, that is who you become. Whatever you feel inside your own mind with your thoughts, that is what you attract. The life you imagine is the life you create.

Just as we look for others to lead us, or we seek to lead others, no matter which path you choose, you must take charge and lead yourself first. When the strong raises up the weak, it’s a win-win, because the end results in both becoming stronger. When you take responsibility in leading yourself, you will take actions that go against the grain of your habits putting you out of your comfort zone. Discomforting still, a lot of times, the results of what you plant may not be seen until a period of time (perhaps years long) has passed. In other words, you must find consolation in being true to yourself even if no one else sees or knows the fruits of your labor.

Sometimes, life’s biggest victories come in a from whose glory lies only in the fact that they are known to those who get up and get after it. Success is not free. It will cost you. But when you know where you’re going, you’ll never have a problem paying up.

Before I end this post, I want to leave one final thought on failure as follows: Life has taught me that there is no prospect regarding failure which comforts the mind, with the exception of one thing; One is left with time to think and reflect. In the throes of struggle, when one is tossed about, ceaselessly reacting to varying circumstances, one doesn’t have much chance to carefully deliberate all possible that result from their decisions. Failure, provides time to reflect on what one has done and not done, in ways beyond reproach. It’s easy to look back and chide ourselves over what we did at such and such time, but without failure, we’d never know those things we didn’t do, that led up to our downfall.

Negative thoughts exploit your weaknesses, demolish your initiative, and negate all hallmarks of hope. You never want to be without that spark that makes each of us human and each of us uniquely individual. To emerge from the waters of the deep, undiminished, you must adopt a strategy that will undermine any and all proclivities you have to tell yourself “I can’t.”

If you tell yourself “I can’t,” you can know what you’re doing, how you’ll get there, and even how long it will take. But guess what, you’ll never get there.

Those that know where they’re going never tell themselves “I can’t.” Why should you?

–Daniel Cousin

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