Stop Doing The ‘Right’ Thing And Take A ‘Wrong’ Turn Toward Your Dreams

By

“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” – Laurence J. Peter

You make a left at Broadway Blvd, off to another day at work. And though it’s just you in the car, you are not alone, Ed Sheeran there, blasting up the radio station with his latest single.

“I’m in love with the shape of you,” Ed says. He whispers as he sings, huffing through gruff breath. “We push and pull like a magnet do.” Your hips wiggle in the seat, miming out his passion. “Although my heart is falling too […]”

By the time Ed is “discovering something new,” you realized you missed your turn. You are now officially late for work, and not even because you didn’t know where you were going, but because you were so in the moment that you forgot what street came next!

So you keep driving. And dancing. And “talk[ing] for hours and hours about the sweet and the sour.” With Ed. With life. With you. And you realize, maybe this wasn’t the job you always wanted. You were going to be a painter, not a secretary.

You are going to be a painter, starting today.

And you realize, maybe this wasn’t a city meant for settling. You were going to move to the country, not the ‘burbs.

You are still going to move, and inhale freedom.

Turning left on Broadway, right on Kolb Road day in and day out for so many years became easy. It became safe. It became so mindless that you forgot where you were going or why you were headed that direction. The job was to pay for art school. The ‘burbs were just temporary.

AND THE TEMPORARY STOPS TODAY.

Because, in forgetting where you were going, in missing your turn on Kolb Rd and being late for your job this morning, you arrive at Sabino Canyon Park. The sun is rising in shades of orange and pink, the cacti are basking in shadows of cliffs. Your mind arrives in the moment and your path becomes clear: you are back on track, landing in the imperfectly beautiful and mindfully pristine “somewhere else.”

Now, your life, your passion, your moment can begin, and you can move forward, never afraid to end up someplace else.