Choose Your Own Path

How many of us could answer this question if someone asked us, “What is your way of life?”

I wouldn’t imagine many people would have an answer, understand it or stumble their way through it. 

Many of us don’t have a way of life, well we do, but it’s not really a way. You have to choose a path in life; otherwise, if you don’t choose one consciously, someone else will choose it for you. 

This is largely determined by advertising agencies, social media and whatever other cultural trends are happening. Keep in mind that those don’t always have your best interest at heart.

When was the last time you really believed that a product a large company was trying to sell you was for your own benefit and not for their back pocket?

To be someone, companies believe that we need to own this thing; we need to buy their brand. By owning the brand, you are representing their tribe. The tribe that was created by them and made you want to feel a part of it.

Breaking the vicious cycle

Companies are feeding on your desire to find a sense of self with something outside of you, which will never happen. Well, it may feel like it for a moment, but nothing can fulfill that need for a connection with oneself in a materialistic sense.

They want to make you feel rich by buying things, but instead, you end up in debt because you always accumulate more stuff and spend more money, which I’m sure you’ve worked very hard to get in the job you may not like very much.

Do you see how this becomes a vicious cycle? Buying stuff that you’re being sold to believe will make you feel good, so you have to make more money to support this habit in a job you don’t even like. 

One reason the fast fashion industry created cheap clothes is to give you the illusion of wealth. When in turn, they are only making you poorer.

Create intentionality

Let’s think about intentionality for a minute, which means doing things with a purpose.

So doing things with purpose requires that you have a purpose. What you want to achieve, where you want to go. Acting intentionally, looking at all the aspects of your life and asking, “does this help me get to where I want to go?”.

Finding a way of life and sticking to it, anchoring yourself to it, following it with diligence and focus is absolutely essential to living a meaningful life and a connected life.

If you’re more open-minded, you can visualise things and keep them at the forefront of your mind to help manifest them. The Secret wasn’t a big hit for no reason. You can take what you want from it, it may not all resonate with you, but it has some great actionable takeaways.  

Choosing your own path and one that speaks to your heart and that makes sense to you is essential to navigating a very complex world that’s increasingly and rapidly becoming even more complex. There’s more noise, more things that are seeking our attention, more distractions and people that go through life pretty disengaged. 

Asking the question, “what is my way of life?” and really thinking and guiding your thoughts through what you want is so important. It’s a question that not many people would be able to answer.

It starts with experimenting

Start to interact with more people, start trying different things. Whether it’s a diet, workout routine or joining a group that aligns with your values in life can help you start building those blocks to help you choose the path you want in life. 

One crucial component of this is to become established within yourself. This can be done by spending more time in nature and in meditation.

Getting back to basics and being that vulnerable, open self that you may have been dodging for a long time can be the catalyst to helping you bridge that gap of not knowing what you want in life.  

Looking inward toward the self rather than outward will only strengthen your why in life. When you do this, something profound changes biologically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally. You’ll notice a shift in your energy and how it has been brought back to its centre. 

This is the only way you will really be able to truly determine your own path in life and truly connect with yourself and the world around you on a much deeper level. 

Questioning things

Being someone that has always questioned things in life, in my early 20s, I really started to see through the sh*t that corporations globally have been feeding us.

It only strengthened when I became interested in natural health and studied health coaching, even more so when I became a minimalist and soon after a vegan. 

You question how things are made, where they come from, who made them. And when you have that heightened awareness, you seek better for yourself, and I believe that you don’t settle for the mundane.

Life has so much to offer, and we have so much to offer life on this planet. Leaving it that little bit better than what we found collectively will create great change. 

This is a luxury

Choosing your own path should be a basic human right. However, unfortunately, many people don’t get this privilege. And yes, I understand that it’s a privilege and having this topic of conversation is such a first-world thing.

However, we can feel lucky enough to make sure that we don’t take life for granted and do something about it. Waking up every morning and being grateful that we are who we are and having the opportunities in life that some people would only dream of is an important point to raise. 

When you begin to question these things, you start to address the things you own, the commitments you have, the people you surround yourself with and realise that they are all a representation of who you truly are and hopefully want to be.

If some of those areas are out of balance or feel like they need some work, start to have that honest conversation with yourself and those around you. 

When you begin acting intentionally and questioning everything in life, living on purpose, your purpose can look a little scary and less structured to the people around you.

They’ll offer words of concern and advice, but when you truly start to follow your own path, it feels like you have been given a true shot at happiness and fulfilment.

At this point, nothing others do or say will matter as much anymore because you know that you have chosen the right path for you. And that, my friends, is where you want to be. 

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