Now What? We’ve all asked ourselves that question at some point of our lives. Where do I go now? Which direction do I take? What decision should I make now? However you phrase it, it culminates from the mind drawing blanks as to the next course of action.
Where do I go from here? What path do I choose or take? Choosing means having options to consider and the problem is usually deciding on the best option, but what if there are no options, when you look ahead and all you see is darkness, nothing to light the path, not even a hint of a passage. It’s almost like facing a black wall in a room that is pitch dark. What do you do then?
Most people tend to seek advise from the wise who have traveled the path before or simply can advise or provide some form of illumination based on their experiences or knowledge. While doing this may help, it is only a part of the solution. We must also take into consideration human fallibility and realize that the ultimate responsibility for our decisions or directions lies entirely on our own selves. What then? What do I do when faced with this hurdle that blinds the way ahead. Here are 3 steps that can help us in situations like these.
Where do I go from here? What path do I choose or take? Choosing means having options to consider and the problem is usually deciding on the best option, but what if there are no options, when you look ahead and all you see is darkness, nothing to light the path, not even a hint of a passage. It’s almost like facing a black wall in a room that is pitch dark. What do you do then?
Most people tend to seek advise from the wise who have traveled the path before or simply can advise or provide some form of illumination based on their experiences or knowledge. While doing this may help, it is only a part of the solution. We must also take into consideration human fallibility and realize that the ultimate responsibility for our decisions or directions lies entirely on our own selves. What then? What do I do when faced with this hurdle that blinds the way ahead. Here are 3 steps that can help us in situations like these.
1)Stop and Step Back
This isn’t the same as turn back or give up or run away. Stop and Step Back here simply means taking a step back to look at the chain of events or decisions or purpose that brought you to this point. What was your initial goal? What experience, emotion or ambition drove you in this direction? More often than not we normally start our journey with a clear idea of where we want to end up, with a clear view of the destination, but somehow, along the road we meet with numerous events, incidents or even additional tasks that work to slow us down, sidetrack us or even push us in another direction. After dealing with all these road blocks and speed bump’s on our journey we sometimes end up stopping and asking ourselves, what on earth was I doing here in the first place? Where was I going anyway?
You see, distractions in life or even the overloading of our schedules can easily pull us away from our initial plans and push us in a direction that we never planned to take in the first place, sometimes even without us realizing it.
When you face that wall, take a step back and do what pilot’s call a “mid-flight correction” that is to realign yourself with your initial goal or destination or purpose. Along our journey in life we will constantly be bombarded with things that take us away from our original purpose and plans, we need to look at these events, incidents or “urgencies” and if they do not contribute, benefit or push us towards our goals, purpose, calling or destiny, we must be bold enough to push it aside, say “no” or at the very least delegate it to someone else. This is essential to ensure we are not sabotaged along the way and this will help prevent us from getting lost or blinded along our path.
This isn’t the same as turn back or give up or run away. Stop and Step Back here simply means taking a step back to look at the chain of events or decisions or purpose that brought you to this point. What was your initial goal? What experience, emotion or ambition drove you in this direction? More often than not we normally start our journey with a clear idea of where we want to end up, with a clear view of the destination, but somehow, along the road we meet with numerous events, incidents or even additional tasks that work to slow us down, sidetrack us or even push us in another direction. After dealing with all these road blocks and speed bump’s on our journey we sometimes end up stopping and asking ourselves, what on earth was I doing here in the first place? Where was I going anyway?
You see, distractions in life or even the overloading of our schedules can easily pull us away from our initial plans and push us in a direction that we never planned to take in the first place, sometimes even without us realizing it.
When you face that wall, take a step back and do what pilot’s call a “mid-flight correction” that is to realign yourself with your initial goal or destination or purpose. Along our journey in life we will constantly be bombarded with things that take us away from our original purpose and plans, we need to look at these events, incidents or “urgencies” and if they do not contribute, benefit or push us towards our goals, purpose, calling or destiny, we must be bold enough to push it aside, say “no” or at the very least delegate it to someone else. This is essential to ensure we are not sabotaged along the way and this will help prevent us from getting lost or blinded along our path.
2) Stop and Ask for Directions
They say that if Columbus asked for directions he would have realized that he had landed in America and not India and maybe today the natives of America would not be called Indians. Like Columbus many of us want to be the masters of our destiny and we want to be able to say that we reached the top of the mountain or reached our goal purely on our own effort and determination. Another word for that is “pride”. Pride is a force that has tremendous destructive capabilities. Nations have gone to war because of pride, Kingdoms have been destroyed because of pride. Pride is also the reason why men are reluctant to go to his fellow man and say “I’m Lost”, “I don’t know what to do next” or simply, “can you help me please”.
Throughout history we read of the achievements of great men, but hidden between the lines are the lives of other men and women who helped these people reached those heights worthy of a mention in our history books and local legends. "No man is an Island" is more that just a overused cliché, it is a universal truth, someone once said, even the Lone Ranger had a sidekick called Tonto to assist and bail him out of the numerous problems he galloped into, therefore he wasn’t really the “Lone” Ranger as the name suggests.
While your destiny is solely yours and cannot be shared by or with anyone, we must also realize that we need people to help us reach our destiny. People who can come along side us and give us that much needed push, subtle nudge, encouragement or even that point in the right direction. Many times when we face that wall and look back we realize that one of the reasons we are at that wall is due to the fact that we never stopped and asked for directions, we never opened our hearts and minds to input from the hearts and minds of others.
Speaking or confiding with the right people along the way will most certainly help us remain focused or even deal with the hurdles along the way. People who have been there before, who are wiser and more experience can all help us keep away from that dead end that we can so easily run into.
They say that if Columbus asked for directions he would have realized that he had landed in America and not India and maybe today the natives of America would not be called Indians. Like Columbus many of us want to be the masters of our destiny and we want to be able to say that we reached the top of the mountain or reached our goal purely on our own effort and determination. Another word for that is “pride”. Pride is a force that has tremendous destructive capabilities. Nations have gone to war because of pride, Kingdoms have been destroyed because of pride. Pride is also the reason why men are reluctant to go to his fellow man and say “I’m Lost”, “I don’t know what to do next” or simply, “can you help me please”.
Throughout history we read of the achievements of great men, but hidden between the lines are the lives of other men and women who helped these people reached those heights worthy of a mention in our history books and local legends. "No man is an Island" is more that just a overused cliché, it is a universal truth, someone once said, even the Lone Ranger had a sidekick called Tonto to assist and bail him out of the numerous problems he galloped into, therefore he wasn’t really the “Lone” Ranger as the name suggests.
While your destiny is solely yours and cannot be shared by or with anyone, we must also realize that we need people to help us reach our destiny. People who can come along side us and give us that much needed push, subtle nudge, encouragement or even that point in the right direction. Many times when we face that wall and look back we realize that one of the reasons we are at that wall is due to the fact that we never stopped and asked for directions, we never opened our hearts and minds to input from the hearts and minds of others.
Speaking or confiding with the right people along the way will most certainly help us remain focused or even deal with the hurdles along the way. People who have been there before, who are wiser and more experience can all help us keep away from that dead end that we can so easily run into.
3) Stop and Look to a Higher Power
We must come to the realization that our sense of destiny or purpose was put into our hearts by none other that God himself. The Bible says this in Eph 2:9 – “ we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them…”
“Prepared beforehand” simply means that we are pre-destined, our destinies have been determined and prepared by God. Walking our path knowing this truth will make our journey a lot more comfortable. When we realize that we are created by Him for a purpose determined by Him, we realize that He plays and active path in helping us reach that destiny. Though all that is visible is a lone shadow of a lonely traveler, our concern should not be in what is seen but in the Mighty God and all the resources of heaven that is not seen but available to that man who understands and embraces that truth. Sometimes, all the motivation in the world, nor all advise, nor all the reflecting, nor all the people in the world will be able to help you. You have to go to before God and surrender all that you are doing, surrender your agenda and just rest in His presence. There are times when only God can replenish and refresh you and set you off on the right path again.
We must come to the realization that our sense of destiny or purpose was put into our hearts by none other that God himself. The Bible says this in Eph 2:9 – “ we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them…”
“Prepared beforehand” simply means that we are pre-destined, our destinies have been determined and prepared by God. Walking our path knowing this truth will make our journey a lot more comfortable. When we realize that we are created by Him for a purpose determined by Him, we realize that He plays and active path in helping us reach that destiny. Though all that is visible is a lone shadow of a lonely traveler, our concern should not be in what is seen but in the Mighty God and all the resources of heaven that is not seen but available to that man who understands and embraces that truth. Sometimes, all the motivation in the world, nor all advise, nor all the reflecting, nor all the people in the world will be able to help you. You have to go to before God and surrender all that you are doing, surrender your agenda and just rest in His presence. There are times when only God can replenish and refresh you and set you off on the right path again.
Stop and Step Back, Stop and ask for Directions and Stop and Look to a Higher Power and we will find that the path ahead becomes a lot more clearer, and we will walk it focused and brimming with confidence.
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