Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the Two roads
diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost

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Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been looking at some ideas around what is traditionally called ‘goals’ and what I like to refer to as having a sense of purpose and direction in life. We started off by looking at the importance of having a clear direction or goal and why this is so important to your life on both a psychological and practical level. I briefly referred to the work of Dr. Maxwell Maltz and Psycho Cybernetics. We then moved on to the all important question which is:

 ‘what do you really want?’

This can be a very ‘tough’ question and is not all that straight forward, especially if you haven’t thought about it for a long time. This is something that you need to get in ‘touch’ with, because on a deeper level there is a part of you that knows exactly what you want and even why you are here. This is the part of you that is the ‘real you’ and that ‘sits at the centre’ underneath the garment of outer appearances. Real fulfillment and joy in life comes only from finding out what YOU really want and then living that.

As I was preparing to write this piece I came across a deeply moving speech given to a group of Stanford students by a man who has touched virtually ever person in modern society. His name is Steve Jobs and he is the founder of Apple Computers. Without him you probably would not be reading these words right now. In his speech he relates three stories from his life to three life lessons that is not only moving but also deeply inspiring.

The message of his speech was very simple: Find what you love to do and do that. When you do, your whole life will just fall into place and you will have a sense of purpose that will give you true fulfillment and a sense of  meaning. I believe that it is the single most important thing you can do in your life. Find what you love and do that. 

It sounds so simple, yet it can be so hard. Maybe you feel like you ‘can’t do that’ or maybe you don’t quite know exactly what you really want from life. That’s o.k. The important thing is to keep searching and to keep advancing towards what you love and what brings you joy. You most certainly will connect the dots at some point and life has the tendency to just fall in place when you try and put all the pieces of your life together.

Keep asking, keep searching and never conform to living a life that is dictated by someone else or even worse – by what’s expected of you. I close with a quote from Steve Jobs’ speech that really sums it up nicely.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Make sure you go and check out this speech on YouTube. You can watch it for free and you need not register or anything - it’s approximately 15 minutes long (if you have a broadband connection). Who knows maybe it contains that missing piece in your puzzle. Keep looking. Keep searching. Seek and you SHALL find…and when you do the whole world opens up to you.

Here Are The Links:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA — For The Video

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html — For The Transcript

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