Friday, January 13, 2012

Constructing Your Road


"The road to success is always under construction."

It seems that most of us were not born with a silver spoon in our mouth. That being the case, the vast majority of people you encounter each day have had to work quite hard for what they have accomplished in life. True enough, there certainly seem to be those that only want to hitch a ride on the tailgate of your pickup called life.


In the larger majority though, people are on their journey to some level of success in life. There are those that have huge financial success in life. There are those that achieve great fame in life. There are also those that achieve personal greatness that goes unnoticed. But all people have had to endure the setbacks and circumstances that life has thrown on their path.

As it is said, "the road to success is always under construction" or more aptly put it seems "the road to success is always under repair." Whichever way you wish to look at it, you have the ability to create that path. You get to choose the road and with that choice you have to deal with its condition.

You might be asking yourself how it is you get to choose your own road. We tell ourselves that the road was already there and we were simply dropped into the middle of it. I do believe that we are products of our birth, our upbringing and the circumstances which surround all of that.


The exciting thing is that we don't have to remain on that road. We grow up and become independent thinkers. The life as a child and young teenager or even young adult are influenced by those life events. But now we have the ability to shape our own lives and to choose the road we follow. We even get to create that road if we wish.

So how do we get on with shaping our own future?

Recently I read a Psychology Today article by Robert Steven Kaplan called Authoring Your Future. In this article he discusses that even though we are shaped and influenced by our life experiences; we also have the ability to influence our future life. Mr. Kaplan provides three critical questions to ask yourself;

1 - Can you accurately assess your strengths and weaknesses? "...we tend to have blind spots. We may not see ourselves accurately. Worse, we may not want to acknowledge and face our weaknesses."

2 - Do you know your passions? "Experience has shown that you will be far more likely to "shine" if you are doing something you enjoy."

3 - Develop a support group. "Do you have relationships with people who care enough about you to tell you the brutal truth."

You know, I would love to tell you that the road construction finally ends. It does in a way but as long as breath exists in your body, you can keep constructing new things for your life. The road you take will have its moments of detours and construction. But there will also be times when the road is newly paved and free of that construction.

Keep finding your own path, keep building the life you wish for, never be weary of the construction, rejoice in the journey.

Stay inspired my friends.

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