Stay on the Path

I heard something over the weekend that I have heard many times, but it’s been a while. This weekend I read it when I was reading an article from a man named Sahil Bloom. He said to remember the 1-in-60 rule: 1 degree error in heading means a plane will miss its destination by 1 mile for every 60 miles flown. My point being that the longer you travel on the wrong path, the further you will keep getting from the path of potential greatness. So how do we get off track? Most of the time when you are on a path, you can see where you are supposed to be going. It might just be a dirt road, but you know you need to keep following it. When you think about it that way, it almost seems as if when we get off the path it had to be in some way intentionally. We knew that we had stepped off the path, but we had the expectation that we would get right back on. But then we never did. I believe that one of the biggest reasons that we step off the path is because of resistance. The path got hard for a few miles, so we stepped off. When we are talking about going on the path of potential greatness, one of the biggest obstacles is doubt. We start on the path feeling really good. We are ready to convince the world that we have all the ability. Then at some point doubt creeps in. Sometimes it’s because some of our supporters go off on their own path. The better you are, the better you make the people around you. That means that at some point they should all leave you to go on their own path. That means it gets lonely and doubt can set in. I was driving to work the other day and I heard something on the Ed Mylett Podcast that I think can be really helpful for people to hear. I’ve heard him say it before, but it made me think of everything I have been talking about the last few weeks. He said that when you are experiencing doubt, that is a sign of progress. The way I understood it was like this, you are experiencing doubt because so many questions keep coming up. The reason so many questions are coming up is because you are somewhere you have never been before. The longer I’m on the path, the more things are coming up that I have never done before. Sometimes they are good, sometimes they are negative, but it’s all new!  The more responsibility you have, you are going to have doubts. When you think of increasing production in any way. You are going to have doubts. If you decide something and the increase you experience wasn’t as great as you thought it might be, you have doubts. All this time I have looked at doubt as completely negative. It was something that slowed me down, doubt leads to questions. When those questions come up, I must slow down to find answers. When too many questions hit me at one time, sometimes I decide to get off the path for awhile until I find answers. I must learn to stay on the path. Maybe instead of getting off the path, I will rest for a few minutes, but I will stay on the path. When I read books, listen to a podcast, or watch a video, the great ones know how to stay on the path. They still have doubts, they still have issues that come up. They just make sure that when they wake up the next morning, they get back on the path. In order for you to wake up every morning and get back on the same path, you must know the path to take. You must make sure that you are prepared every single day. Lately I have been wondering how many days I am truly prepared for my day. I’m starting to think that I am only prepared for my day about one third of the time. If I can get that to half of the time, what is the impact? What do I need to do to be prepared seventy-five more times over the year? That is six more times a month. That is only one or two more times a week. Be prepared, be intentional and every single day get back on the path.