This post is from a former coach of mine, Jacqueline Wales. Her thoughts in this post resonate profoundly with my life philosophy that I just had to include it on my blog page. Jacqueline, here’s to you and thank you for helping me with my own personal journey!

I am a great believer that if we pay attention on this journey we call life, there are road signs that point us in the direction we need to take. There are people who send us messages. Events that show us what’s working or not. Signs that come out of nowhere to give us a nudge, or intuitive feelings that seem to be pointing in a new direction. I have experienced all of these, and in particular during the last two weeks in Bali, it has been an extraordinary journey of discovering where we get locked in fear, and how that effects the outcome. But what happens when we don’t pay attention?  We find ourselves in conflict. We feel challenged by events, and we get caught up in blaming people or circumstances for the limitations that we feel stuck in.

 Wherever we look, there are road signs. We know that change involves making a decision, and sometimes these decisions are hard to make. We have to make choices that turn is in a different direction. We may have to leave people who don’t serve our higher needs. We may have to walk out on a job that makes us miserable. Sometimes it’s so radical, we overturn everything that is familiar, and move to a different country.  There are thousands of road signs every day on what’s working, and what’s not. 

 When we pay attention to the signs, it is remarkable what happens.  Life gets easier. When we are listening to the chatter of other people, we get caught up in their journey. When we listen to the inner voice that we all have, and we really listen to our better selves, we catch the road signs. The truth is, we understand innately what is good for us. We know which direction to take. But we don’t always take it

I am a lover of Robert Frost’s poetry, and in his poem The Road Not Taken he talks about the choices we make. While the poem is about actual and figurative roads: the roads we walk and drive on, it is also the roads we take through life. For every road we take, there’s a road we don’t take. Wrong turn or not, the roads we take can end up making significant changes in our lives. And we’ll always wonder about the roads that we didn’t try.

So what road signs are in your life right now?  What do you need to pay attention to, but perhaps are ignoring?  Which road would you like to take? The choices we make today are part of the decisions we make tomorrow. I believe we grow, learn and achieve when we pay attention to the road signs in our lives. –Jacqueline Wales