7 hacks for trusting and following your path

Stay centered by aspiring to find emotional or inner balance in life’s continuous imbalance, ambiguity, and uncertainty by flowing with changes and controlling what you can.

No matter how much chaos, imbalance, and discomfort we all experience, it’s important to trust your path and that everything is happening according to the plan. Develop an unshakable assurance that your path has great surprises and positive experiences in store for you. Learn to trust it and find the balance through self-acceptance, resilience, control, gratitude, and patience. Everything happens for a reason and, the reason usually reveals itself not from the beginning.

Self-acceptance

“Happiness and self-acceptance go hand in hand. In fact, your level of self-acceptance determines your level of happiness.” Be proud and grateful for who you are and what you managed to become. Don’t blame your history, genetics, unfavorable circumstances, occurrences, etc. Don’t blame yourself either. You are who you are, and what matters most is what you can do to fill your gaps and become who you want to become. Don’t let the inner critic take control of your actions, be kind to yourself instead and celebrate your strengths. Stop complaining about what you don’t have or what you’re not, take action and go get it! “Embrace the glorious mess that you are.”

Patience

Most importantly is not to give up, to know it will happen and trust that you can pick it up again and be even stronger than before. Focus on the higher goal. Focus on uncovering your authentic, best self. Great things are possible just with one step at a time. Always focus on the process and execution, rather than worrying about the desired, or worse, the feared result. Like the bamboo tree, bend, but don’t break. Stay patient and resilient, but always move forward. You can stumble sometimes, but pick it up again. Don’t force the results, everything will happen at the right time.

Facing adversity

It’s not what happens to you, but how you respond to it. When facing adversity, don’t just focus on the fact that you went downhill. The path is not quite what you expected or hoped for, you should be inspired by the concern and address the problem with a new goal of moving forward the path. Do what it takes to get back on track and understand that every setback happens only for the simple reason to make you stronger, so you can face bigger obstacles in the future. Be grateful for it and move on. Remember that “The joy of overcoming challenges is the nectar of life”.

Comparing your path with a mountain

Here’s a clear-cut inspiring paragraph I liked from “The champion’s mind” by Jim Afremow:

“Working to improve and reach your goal is like climbing a mountain. Mountains have gradual inclines, steep inclines, and cliffs, and these paths don’t always lead to the summit. Sometimes the path heads down or drops before it starts rising again. These declines in the mountain path are akin to illness, setbacks, failures, etc. As long as we keep following and moving forward on the path, we are doing what is necessary to be the best that we can be. It is easy when things are going uphill because you can see yourself getting closer to the summit, but you have to stay focused on the goal when the path heads down.”

Gratitude

Always be grateful for your life and the opportunities you have, there’s always something to appreciate. Gratefulness always brings a sense of balance and positivity in life which is significant for trusting the process and attracting great things. Feeling gratitude sets the tone for improving and enjoying your life experiences and thus, it’s easier to follow your goal. Feeling gratitude has a direct connection with well-being, so grab your “gratitude journal” now, and write the things you appreciate most in your life! This will make you reflect upon how fortunate you are to be here and now.

Accepting the uncontrollable

If you’re not happy about where you stand, change the path, even if you need to take a few steps backward, better now than never. It’s important to have at least a vision. So many people nowadays run in circles without direction nor purpose. Therefore, make sure that you’re eventually aiming for something real and achievable, in which you believe in.

Nevertheless, if you’re certain that you’re on the right track, ask yourself “How can I be the best version of myself?” “What can I do today to get better? ” The rest is out of your control and what you can handle is your attitude and belief that you can conquer the summit. Rest your attention on the uncertainty of life, enjoy it, and trust your path.

Don’t compete against others, compete against yourself

Above all, everything you do should have a reason. To find balance, and inner peace, you should redirect the energy from fighting someone to declaring an unceasing war with yourself and striving to win against your old habits and demons inside your head. Don’t bother if someone makes progress faster than you, or if someone is more successful or famous. Focus on your own way, and be patient with your own process. Allow yourself to develop in your own time and never compare yourself to others. You have your own timelines and your own aspirations.

Finally, success is peace of mind, which is a result of self-satisfaction in knowing that you made the effort to do your best to become the best you’re capable of becoming. So go for it, don’t worry about the final destination, choose your path, follow it, trust it, conquer the summit!

I’m finishing off this article with a Zen proverb:

“To follow the path, 

look to the master,

follow the master,

see through the master.

become the master.