“Taking the route less travelled”
A rather cliché saying which many would have heard of but little would have chosen. In this age of breaking conformity, the route less travelled has become the choice most believe they take.
As an individual, I wouldn’t claim to be someone who perpetually takes a different path from others, but a question that I always ask myself, why do I choose to do things differently?
As I sat down to think about this question, this is my reflection.
- You miss all the shots you do not take, or do you really?
Life is all about choices — no doubt we may fall victim to our circumstances, but there’s always choices even if it is just a teeny weeny choice. Out of all the choices I have made, there’s a portion of it that I did not “take the shot”. Letting go of my right to potentially be right, it is a pride issue. Many a times, I knew things were going to happen if I did not put a stop to it or take actions. But as I grew and learnt, I realized that by doing so, I deprive someone else from growing and learning. So, at every point of decision-making, I put away my superhero complex and said, “I am not here to save anyone, neither do I have the ability to — I am responsible to others not for others.”
- Fear is a challenge in itself.
I am a challenge-lover, the greater the challenge, the greater the love. I am also a person of faith, so the greater the fear, the greater the faith. Regardless of your religion or non-religion, there’s a reliance of placing difficult life choices on an anchoring point. To choose to do things differently, one of the factors entailed is usually the concern of the outcome(s) that would emerge. For someone with the mindset to choose discomfort, it is easy to step into the vortex of being exponentially challenged.
- Everyone is unique in their own ways.
Yes, yes — everyone is different. But the question is: How much is the difference respected? We all come from different backgrounds and have different lived experiences that shapes us to be who we are. At the crux of it all, the innate nature to lean on what we know and steer away from what we do not know is perfectly normal. So since we have already acknowledged that everyone is different, the route taken is in itself already different no matter how many chooses to take it.
If you are someone at a crossroad, I hope this little insight from what I have experience would spur you to go forth with whichever road you want and know that, the courage to choose to take the first step would ramp up when the time comes to receive the outcome(s) of your choice.