You Don’t Keep Walking Because You’re Halfway Through, You Should Keep Walking Because You’re in the Right Direction

I was recently inspired by a person dear to me about choices that we make. I’ll spare you the details if you will, but the general idea is that a person has to keep walking because he or she is halfway through a journey, wherever the destination might be. Or, is it true?

I beg to differ. I’d say this, “You don’t keep walking because you’re halfway through, you should walk because you’re in the right direction.” Imagine that you’re lost in a jungle, but you’ve walked for 10 miles, but do you keep walking because you’ve been walking for so long? When the sun rises, you realize that you’re in the wrong direction, wouldn’t you change course and turn around? That’s common sense for sure. But why don’t people do the same in life? How many times have you done something simply because you were told to, because it was the way that’s been done for centuries, because you didn’t have a choice? I definitely have.

We often get stuck in a rut because we don’t raise our head and look around to see if we’re heading in the right direction. If we keep walking without looking at the sky, without a compass (could very well be this blog or a mentor that you have), without a GPS, how would we know if we would get out of the jungle? You have to be conscious and find out if you’re on the right track. If you are, congratulations! Otherwise, stop doing what you’re doing and reassess yourself. You might want to use the free success checklist I’ve built by signing up with your email address on the sidebar. If you find out that you’re not really supposed to be doing what you’re doing, be it studying, working, daydreaming, stop doing it for the sake of doing. Steve Jobs said it well: “”If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

So how do you make sure you’re on the right track? I’ve designed a simple Venn diagram for you to identify if you’re on the right track.

You’re passionate about what you’re doing

You have to love what you do, otherwise you will only achieve so much. Steve Jobs doesn’t only like creating MACs and iPods, he LOVES what he’s doing and would do it even if today were his last day on earth. Follow your heart and you will succeed in your own way. If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll consider having a post on how to find your passion. But this is only 1/3 of a way to identify if you’re on the right track, you might be passionate about movie dramas, but you’re not gonna produce one! (Okay, you might, but you get the point.)

You’re putting a lot of genuine effort into what you’re doing

You work hard! This is the part where you really gonna produce a movie drama. Working hard tells a lot by itself. It shows your dedication, your commitment, your resolve. Warren Buffett spends most of his waking hours reading company annual reports to spot good investment opportunities (other than playing Bridge with Bill Gates), because he wants to be the best at what he does – value investing. But I emphasized ‘genuine’, because you might be working hard at a job that you don’t really like, but you’re required to work overtime, or else you’ll be fired. If that’s the case, you might not be on the right track. If you work hard because you really want to, because you want to learn more, that might be an indication that you should keep going.

You’re good at you’re doing (better than average)

You gotta have the talents. If you don’t have the natural talents are what you’re doing, you might still reach your goal, but it’ll take you 5 years instead of 1 year for someone with better talents than you. If you and Michael Jordan started playing basketball at the same time, do you think you’d be as good at basketball as he was? You still can do it if you’re passionate and you want to put in a lot of genuine effort, but you should question yourself, “Is it worth it?” Work on your strengths, not your weaknesses, because your strengths will definitely outgrow your weaknesses by a gazillion light years.

Find the intersection point

So, to know if you’re on the right track, find the intersection point in the Venn diagram – do what you’re passionate about, what you’re willing to work hard for, and what you’re good at. If you do that, I truly congratulate you on your journey of success.

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