The road not taken...

The Road Not Taken

As we enter a brand new year, it is customary to look ahead to what we want from the next 12 months. This year, like last year, we will have to make choices. Sometimes it might feel like there is only one way forward. But be sure that there are always options available to us - some certainly more attractive than others - but always more than one path to follow.

Often our choices will include one "should" - an option that we feel we should pursue because it's the way most people do things, or it's what is expected of us. Equally, our choices will also often include one "less travelled road" - an option which involves us carving out our own way, doing something original, more risky, less "tried and tested". It can be frightening to take this option. It involves having trust in our own instincts rather than following the crowd. And, of course, the most risky option isn't always the most sensible!

However, I hope this wonderful poem by Robert Frost inspires you at some point over the next year to take that road less travelled and carve out a life for yourself that really reflects who you are and what you want, rather than what others expect of you...
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Book Recommendation
For those of you wanting more help to create a vision of the next year, I highly recommend: "Your Best Year Yet" by Jinny Ditzler (publ. Thorsons).

It's not a New Year's Resolutions book (I am not a big fan of them!!) but a great way to acknowledge your achievements this year, clarify what you learnt and plan how to apply all that to the year ahead.

Having recently completed the book myself I can say that it's a great way to start the new year whether you are a business person, leader, professional, coach or just want to think more about your personal life in the coming months.