Melissa Reddick

Yipee, triple digits! You made it! Moving on.

Yesterday we started talking about the primary issue with identifying your purpose in life.

The foundation of your education, at least in the USA, is based on not thinking for yourself. And then, at your first opportunity to do so, you are met with a crossroads and no clear path forward for your questions to be answered clearly.

So, what happens next?

Let’s say you pick a path. You find a trusted advisor who has no investment in what you choose to do, no self-interested agenda to steer you towards college, flight school, or the military.

That person presents your options clearly, lays out “here’s what will happen if you choose A, B, or C” and “here’s what happens if you don’t choose any of them”. “Here are the opportunity costs, what you miss out on, here are the risks, the benefits”. He or she helps you get all the information you can get at this stage so you can build your “pros and cons” list, if you want to.

So let’s pick a path here really quickly. It doesn’t matter which one.

Option A – going to college leaves you in a state of delayed gratification, debt, and you’re locked into a life path you won’t get to have direct experience with for nearly another decade.

Option B – flight school puts you in direct contact with your dream, at the same cost as a college degree but without a college degree to fall back on if you don’t like being a pilot.

Option C – joining the Air Force in pursuit of qualifying to become a fighter pilot locks you into an iron-clad contract for at least 4 years, which you cannot get out of unless something terrible happens to you (or because of you), and there is no guarantee you’ll ever get to see the inside of a cockpit if you take this route.

So you choose Option D, none of the above. Because none of the unknowns were worth the investment in any of those paths as they were outlined. The structures are too rigid, the paths too unclear, the territory too uncharted even though it all seems carved out enough for you to pass through. Everyone wants you to be convinced that whatever path you choose there’s a “sure thing” ahead of you. But what if there isn’t?

Or what if that “sure thing” has too many barriers to entry and success, and you run into one that isn’t worth overcoming? What then? What comes next?

There are places in every system where the structure is too rigid, too tight, too constricting and yet others where it’s too lax, the support is missing. Too many people end up falling through the cracks, and yet they are always blamed as the ones that are flawed rather than the reality of the system itself being acknowledged.

What are the barriers of entry to the “job” or “role” of your dreams that you would not be willing to overcome?

Would it be training that costs $100,000 or more? Having to travel across the globe once in your lifetime, or once in a while, or once a month? Would it be having to sacrifice or delay owning your own home for a significant amount of time past what people consider the “normal” age to own a home? Or what if you married someone who appeared to be on board with your chosen purpose (for the sake of this example we’ll call it a career), but then years later realized he or she didn’t really like how it made you come home late every evening or had you leaving on long business trips. What if your spouse demanded you give up your purpose in life or they were going to leave? Would you sacrifice the relationship for your mission, or vice versa?

Or are you the type of person, like me, who would be willing to make every sacrifice, delay every gratification, weather every storm, recover from every mishap, folly, and foible in order to keep pursuing that which was calling you forth from the depths of your being?

If you are, then the flaws in the structures that are meant to support you won’t stop you. They’ll work in your favor because you’ll turn every misstep into fuel for your future self’s success.

So take inventory and answer the question honestly today. That is the only journaling prompt.

Can you be stopped on the way to executing your life’s purpose and mission or not?