The Journey to Success – It Comes From the Path Less Traveled

There is a path, called ‘the path to success,’ which everyone is traveling on. Scattered randomly throughout the journey are occasional forks in the road that require us to make difficult decisions.

Both paths of these diverging forks bring with them certain appeal, rewards, risks, drawbacks, as well as consequences. The fork on the left, for example, is often much more appealing because the path is usually paved, it is always full of fellow travelers, and looks a whole lot easier than the fork on the right. In fact, sometimes it actually appears that the fork on the left is heading in the right direction while the fork on the right is veering away from the eventual destination’s end.

Comparatively, the fork on the right usually seems much more difficult to journey on initially, and it is always less traveled because of the unknown risks, the inevitable potholes, and the effort required. Interestingly enough, some who choose to go right at these pivotal and occasional forks along the ‘path to success,’ will eventually decide to go left somewhere down the road. Why? The fork on the right usually is unpaved, deserted and lonely in many places, and the decision to go right at the next fork often never gets easier.

However, those travelers who have made the long and difficult journey and chosen to go right at the majority of forks will collectively agree that their path may have been initially daunting, lonely at times, and extremely hard, but they will also undoubtedly agree that the journey was certainly worth both the effort as well as the reward at the end of their chosen path.

Their fellow travelers who usually chose the fork on the left along this ‘path to success,’ most certainly enjoyed the paved roads, ease of the journey, and signs that clearly marked their path for a time; however, the majority who went left will also collectively agree that the success, happiness, and freedom they sought from the journey’s end was not only forfeited along the journey – but often not found at the eventual path’s destination.

And so yours and my journey on this ‘path to success’ continues. Inevitably, we will soon be faced with another fork in the road – which way will we choose to go? Remember that the occasional paths that veer right often come before we’re ready and leave before we realize it. Most importantly, will we have the faith, determination, effort, and persistence required to walk the difficult ‘path to success’ and obtain the reward at the journey’s destination? The journey’s path does have a reward – call it whatever you may: personal achievement, goals reached, dreams realized, risks rewarded, talents obtained, wealth acquired, happiness enjoyed, freedom achieved, character developed, or success won. This reward can come, but it only comes from continually choosing the fork less traveled.