Knowing that the path you are walking is your true life path is a question many people have asked. Where am I going? Why am I here? What is it that I am meant to be doing in this lifetime?
It’s a terribly human thing to desire surety, to know for certain that this is the right way for us. We think that we should know where we are going. We set goals and take action and do stuff and often find ourselves frustrated and angry that things are not going to plan.
Things keep happening and wham all your best-laid plans go to rat shit. I have learned over the years that plans are good as long as you allow your heart to change them. After all, a plan is merely a suggestion, isn’t it?
Heading out of the house this morning, the dogs led the way. They know the path by now. I put on Audible and started listening to my latest book.
Through the rain I caught sight of the doggies sniffing last night’s playful fox trails and eating boar droppings, they were following their intuition. They weren’t struggling with shall I stay on this path, they were going for gold.
Ok, it’s easy for the dogs – eat, poo, sleep and wander around the hills. But there is a lesson in exploring, being curious, open and considering possibilities. They are so bright, those doggies.
There have been many times over the last few years when things have gone wrong that I have screamed which fricking life path am I meant to be travelling on? One moment you let me make plans for this and then something happens. Help me to know.
The truth is knowing would take the fun out of things. Maybe you don’t agree with that, but I have had to learn so much about letting go and trusting and still there is more to learn. I am getting better at being less impatient and listening. No, seriously, I am.
If you are feeling stuck, pissed at life, wondering what’s next or even feeling like you are living someone else’s life. Consider these that have guided my expansion and growth.
20 Powerful ways of knowing that you are on the right life path
These are what resonate with me, perhaps there are others that you would add to the list?
- You learn to trust your inner guidance system
- Things start to align for you – as if by magic
- Set intentions, take aligned action, allow and things to flow
- You overcome obstacles creatively and don’t let them get in your way
- You make great conscious choices which seem easy
- You stop living someone else’s life – you do what makes your heart sing – do a passion project
- You lose track of time doing what you love
- You feel fired up and motivated about what you are doing
- You feel proud of what you have done and what’s to come
- Use feedback wisely (no more feeling criticised)
- You want to be a part of the change, and you want to impact people with your story
- You surround yourself with likeminded people
- You take courageous steps even if they feel scary
- You let love in, let go and follow your heart
- You live by your values and feel fulfilled doing so
- It’s less about the material things
- You treasure community, kindness and connection
- Toxic friends go and you care less about what these kinds of people say about you
- You listen to your body – it will tell you what you need to know about what it needs and when to slow it down
- You took the chill pill and you like it
Don’t look for the key it will find you
At the beginning of the year, I’d set some powerful intentions, one of which was combining my spiritual work with my strategic work. I launched the Healing Book Project with a book called Rebirth. It was a great project and one that taught me a great deal.
But it left me thinking is this what I want? The answer was a resounding no, but it led me to a field of possibilities, where I rested for a while.
In that space, I did ponder what was next, but in letting things flow because I am always on the right path, I realised that I was missing some fun in my life. Knowing it is one thing but doing something is quite something else.
I’m sat once more with my journal, eyes half-closed and wondering – what is Spirit trying to tell me, with the mad dreams and other signs? What am I not hearing? Connecting my heart with Mother Earth and breathing gently, in my head, I heard the answer. Don’t look for the key it will find you. Pausing I realised that I had been pushing too hard for an answer.
During this time, I’d been having wild dreams all about being reborn and new starts. And I felt dread wash over me. No more starting again, please!
I have started again so many times. Although I confess, the last fresh start was much needed, and it has been incredibly exciting. I’m sitting here today feeling pretty chilled that I have so many skills and experiences that have contributed to my vast well of knowledge.
But here’s where I found myself. I was almost renouncing my writing business stuff in favour of following a passion project. When it struck me that what I needed to do was to combine the two – doh!
I dug out my 90-day plans – mmm. I reviewed my strategic plan for 2022 – mmm. Ok, I thought here we go again. The path is no longer the path. The path and plans are changing. I felt resistance like you cannot imagine… And then I spoke with my coach – they always help you to clear the debris, don’t they?
Among this, I was slowed down by tiredness. By being stopped, I had time to reflect and scribble and by allowing, everything felt easier, and things made sense.
Stop searching: I know it’s hard, but what I believe is that all is in divine order and you already hold the master key. Pop it in the lock and let the door swing slowly open.
Things will go wrong until you listen
Know this; if you push you will only go so far down the ‘wrong’ pathway. In my life, there have been many turning points and crossroads. I’ve lost count of the forks in the road and the journeys along so many seemingly strange paths.
I ask you, who hasn’t encountered an unexpected bend, a twist or turn they weren’t anticipating?
Every day the master plan and the route through life continue exactly as they should and yet we face it with fear, disappointment, and anger. We get on the magic bus of life and sit helplessly as it appears to drive us, we think, in the wrong direction.
We need to look backwards, not so that we can dwell in or on the rubbish part of our lives, but to gain wisdom or hindsight that provides flashes of insight into where we now find ourselves. Combining this with our magical formula of foresight, intuition, and inner knowing we have an indispensable system for moving forwards.
The key to your inner guidance system is to stop, listen and learn, from the past, present and future because they are all, in reality, our now. The choices we make today affect all of our tomorrows. The choices of yesterday do the same. Everything collides beautifully into the book of our lives. That rich flow of endless words that come to guide us. Not written on parchment or carved in wood, but deep inside our souls. And all we have to do is listen.
There is no wrong path
Life is rarely one long period of ecstatic peace, love, and harmony; it is made up of lessons for us to learn. Each lesson teaches us something amazing about ourselves, and if we don’t learn the lesson the first time, it somehow creeps up and bites us on the bum.
Sometimes those dratted lessons keep spinning around until something jolts us awake. Then you often find that after a period of let’s call it grieving, you find that gorgeous peace once again descends, and you have a slow and enchanted growth period.
Life goes in revolutions (fast stuff) and evolutions (slow stuff). Neither exists without the other, and both exist because of each other.
Think for a moment of every revolution in your life—Times of abrupt change, followed by times of quiet consideration. Eruptions, solitude, eruptions, quietude and so your world revolves and evolves.
What I have also come to realise is that it is in the act of observation; in becoming a witness that one can gain the most value, gain understanding, seeing repeated patterns, reasons for particular behaviours, what your scripts are and so much more. The past is a beautiful synchronistic set of events that lead you to your now. Your past is an encyclopaedia for you to reference. What a rare and glorious gift, your book of life is, that guides you artfully along your life path.
Writing has been my saviour
Expansion and transformation are part of a process that keeps you awake, aware and alive. Writing eases you into expansion, it is a gentle, iterative and evolving process. It cannot be forced, and nor does it just happen. It takes work, but it does work.
There comes a time in many people’s lives when the life we are living no longer makes any sense; we feel stuck and fearful of facing our demons. Unknown and unseen monsters tear away at us. We unwittingly shape our lives, putting on a face for our public and all the while we live in constant terror that one day someone will unearth our secrets and show us for the frauds we are. We are not frauds, just fearful.
When that time comes, we search blindly, looking for answers about who we are in the strangest places when, in reality, the search needs to move inwards, where all of the answers reside.
Write and journal it will help you uncover the key
In taking the courageous step of examining who we are and the things we have done or had done to us, we run the risk of crashing. When we career over the precipice and hit the bottom of the canyon, there is only one way out, and that is to find our inner courage and take control. Give yourself the gift of writing yourself a new adventure, where you are the heroines (or heroes) and can control your outcomes.
Through writing, reflection, and creativity, you can pull things into perspective.
For anyone who wonders what next? Put pen to paper, see what emerges, reflect, and learn a new way of writing the next part of your journey and personal story. Writing is cathartic, and when your soul is laid bare, you can either lie down and die, or you can recognise who you are and fight back.
Writing won’t solve anyone’s issues, but it will help to shine a light and in the process enable painful memories to be uncovered, written about, and for healing to take place.
I work on the premise that we are all perfectly imperfect (to steal a title from Lee Woodruff) and that we are the best judges of how to heal ourselves, although we may not know it in our darker moments.
At no point is this about fixing you, making you well or sorting your shit out. No matter where you find yourself, this is about you learning more about yourself every day and taking action in whatever way is relevant to you. From expansion comes transformation, spiritual growth and evolution. We all have a personal choice about what we do next.
Writing has been my saviour and certainly eased me along my life path.
You can start by journaling, or you can look at what you have learned and turn that into a book. Writing a book will enable you to clarify your purpose and your processes, and you will have so much fun getting it written. I’d love to connect with you and walk by your side, guiding you in this process. Please give me a call and let’s chat about your life path book.
What about you are you ready to let the key find you?
PS: your purpose is already in your heart, you simply have to get out of your way and allow the key to unlocking your treasure.
Perhaps you are ready to explore your purpose?