The Journey of Life

“Losing your way on a journey is unfortunate. But, losing your reason for the journey is a fate more cruel” – (One Tree Hill)

Along the pathway we all walk, we stumble across many barriers which prevent us from proceeding forward. That instant discomfort often causes us to either find a new pathway because we too uncomfortable overcoming this barrier or to withdraw completely and find a hole to curl up in until the barrier magically disappears. This causes us to lose our way on this journey of life.

Every human being comes across a barrier, for me it was choosing my career amongst many others. I decided to abandon the journey I was on for another because I realised it was not my journey to take, it was the one proposed to me by others. By making the conscious decision to do that brought about many complexities of which I battled with. It is true that with every decision comes a consequence. The path became brighter
and the barriers disappeared when I decided to face the discomfort. A wise person once told me, in order to grow, you need to face discomfort. All hard situations are uncomfortable because instilled in every human being is the fear of failure and the fear grows according to how hard a barrier may be to overcome. The minute that barrier is overcome, a sense of comfort can be felt because one knows that they overcame a huge hurdle. I could have carried on in that original career path but what is the point? I would have set myself up for a journey with no reason and where is there space to grow in that? Having a passion for something and goal in mind motivated one to grow and grow and to keep on growing so that they meet their full potential. You don’t know what you have within you until you challenge yourself. Which brings me to my next quote…

“Courage is not defined by those who fought and did not fall, but by those who fought, fell and rose again”-Adrienne Rich

Having the courage to overcome that barrier requires one to face the fear of failure. There is always that possibility of failure, everyone can say they failed at something, be it piano, a test, a job or what not. The point is that when someone can pick themselves up after a failure and try again, it shows courage as well as an inner strength that shows the true character of a person.  It is so special, when someone can say, “I overcame that and look where I am now”. When you watch a movie, for example ‘Pursuit of Happyness’, the main character experiences such severe poverty. He fell and fell again but he kept picking himself up and in the end the rewards were priceless. I’m not saying life is like a movie but finding that will and inner strength to say ”ok, i’ll try again tomorrow” is that reason that keeps your journey alive.

Times get hard and always will. What matters is that you go out into the world and face your discomforts so that you can grow to your full potential and by doing that, a ripple effect will cause others to do the same.