On The Right Path?
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Life is filled with twists, turns, topes (speed bumps!) and forks in the road. With all these obstacles, how do you know when you’re on the right track? Is there a way to tell if you’re aligned with your purpose and doing what you are truly meant to do with your limited time here on earth?
There is no flashing neon sign that announces YES, your life is headed in the right direction, or NO, you’ve fallen off course. But, in my experience, there are subtle signs to guide you along. We have a sort of internal GPS to guide us along, but we have to pay attention. Take a moment to consider these basic signals:
Red flags (you’ve gotten off track): You often daydream of a different life, you feel stressed, drained, and often bored. A voice inside your head is whispering that something is off, and you have an empty/unfilled feeling in your gut. If you have any or all of these it’s probably time to hit the pause button and re-consider your route.
Good omens (you’re headed in the right direction): You’re excited to jump out of bed in the morning and embrace the new day, you feel fulfilled, energized, connected, inspired and challenged in a wonderful way. Surprising synchronicities are guiding you along and you receive love notes like one I came home to on my door the other day (see image: note left by retreat leaders at the Tailwind Jungle Lodge). These are good indications that you’re doing something right!!
We all have ups and downs, but in general, these are simple yet powerful prompts on the journey of life—practice tuning in to your inner compass regularly. Feel like you took a wrong turn somewhere? It’s never too late to re-route your course. Check out this wild wisdom to see if life as a wildpreneur might be a good fit for you.
Want to go deeper? Tune into your energy. My mentors have empowered me mantras such as “You leave an energetic signature wherever you go” and “Your vibe attracts your tribe! Every single person, animal, and thing on this earth IS energy. We all carry a vibration either positive or negative. Raise your vibration!” Are you vibrating at a high positive frequency? This is an excellent indication that you’re on the right track. You might also consider:
Do I attract and surround myself with positive, inspired people?
Am I connecting deeply and enriching the lives of others?
Am I living harmoniously and with love?
Why bother finding the right path? Well, there are a plethora of reasons, but one of my favorites is the supportive tailwind that comes with heading down the right trail. For example, I think about my work creating the Tailwind Jungle Lodge: if it was just a job, I would have quit long ago, but my life in the jungle is SO much more than that. I get knocked down (more times than I care to count) but an invisible force helps me get back up and keep moving forward. Deep life lessons are inevitably followed by tremendous reward and fulfillment. Have you experienced this sort of project and felt the tailwind at your back?
I’ll leave you with an excerpt from my forthcoming book, The Wildpreneurs:
If we are wise, we choose work that we’re willing to put extra effort into—that’s when we know we’re on the right track. “This is the most simple and basic component of life: our struggles determine our successes. So, choose your struggles wisely,” says Mark Manson.* When it comes to the work we’re doing, we get to pick our problems (to some extent). We must ask, “What kicks us in the ass in a good way?” For many of us, surfing is a great example—if we come out of the water from surfing, grinning and saying, “that was hard!” and yet eager to go back out there and get our asses kicked once again, then we know we’ve found something worth working for. Alternatively, if we come out of the water cursing the board bitterly, the work will feel much harder and we will be much less likely to stick with it in the long run.
