Ep. 43 - How to know if you should change your path

In this episode, I address the common doubts and questions we face about the paths we've chosen in life, especially as we reflect on our year's accomplishments and setbacks. Through personal insights, I share three pivotal questions to help determine if you're on the right path: is it helping you fulfill your purpose, is it maximizing your potential, and is it making you more productive? I emphasize the importance of staying true to your purpose, exploring your potential, and making a positive impact despite challenges you may encounter. Additionally, I offer guidance on maintaining perseverance and applying wisdom on your journey.

00:00 Introduction: Questioning Your Life Path
00:23 Reflecting on the Past Year
01:26 Dealing with Regrets and Painful Memories
04:26 The Importance of Purpose
09:40 Maximizing Your Potential
12:53 Measuring Productivity and Impact
14:25 Why Challenges Occur on the Right Path
15:54 Conclusion: Applying Wisdom and Knowledge

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Transcript

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Have you ever found yourself questioning a path you've taken in life and wondering if you should call it quits and take a different path? If so, You're not alone. Today, I'm going to share with you three questions that can help you decide if a path you've chosen is the right one for you and whether you should consider changing that path or if you should keep going on that path. As I record this episode, it's a few days to the end of the year 2024. And I don't know when you're listening to this, but this should still be relevant to you. But at this time of the year, There's something I do, and I know that many people do as well, we take time to reflect on what the year has been like. We look at the goals we set at the start of the year and how we've managed to either accomplish those goals or how far we are from accomplishing those goals. We look at the things that happened in our life throughout the year. Some of them we're really, really grateful for. We're thankful. We're thankful that we achieved the things we achieved. We're thankful for the new heights we attained. We're thankful for the accolades people gave us, for the results, the things we started that went well. Just times during the year when we felt we were geniuses because those ideas came in our mind, we implemented them and got the results we wanted. We're thankful for the new relationships, the friends, how relationships and family have gone, things that have gone well. We're thankful for them, but also. These reflections can throw off different types of reactions. they can throw off reactions of regrets, of pain. They can throw off reminders of things that when we were starting the year, we didn't expect that they would happen. Perhaps as you think about the year, you might remember Relationships that ended. people who you thought were in your life for a lifetime, but all of a sudden, for no reasons that you can place your finger on, or sometimes for reasons that you can appreciate, those relationships ended. Things that didn't go well. Money that perhaps you lost. Jobs that were lost. Things that didn't go as well as you planned. ideas that you thought were gonna go very well, but flopped. Dreams that you started the year with but somehow along the year they died. These painful memories can throw up questions in our minds. They get us questioning whether we've taken the right path. They got us questioning whether the decisions we took at the start of that path was the right one. It was the right for me to get into this business relationship. It was the right for me to invest money. in this thing that I invested in. Was it right for me to consider starting this business? Was it right for me to do this or to do that? Did I take the right path? Maybe you're looking at your life and wondering, maybe if I didn't take these decisions, I would be someone entirely different. Who knows how well I would have been doing if I didn't take these decisions. If you're looking at your life today and wondering how different your life would be if you didn't take the path you took. I need you to know that you are not alone. Speaking for myself, I've come to several junctions in my life when I wondered if I took the right path. I wondered if I made mistakes. I wondered if the convictions I had when I started certain things were the right ones. These are thoughts and questions that come to our mind when things are not going the way we thought they would go. These are thoughts and questions that come to our mind when the going gets tough. Yes, perhaps we knew it was going to be tough at the start when we started. We knew that nothing good comes easy. But perhaps we didn't anticipate this level. of toughness. Perhaps we didn't expect that it would be as difficult as it has become. It leads us to ask the question, am I on the right path? Am I doing the right thing? We ask this question when we haven't gotten the kind of results we expected, when it's taking too long for the investment to yield the results we want. You thought it will yield when it's taken too long for maybe you went on a path of forgiveness. You chose to forgive somebody, but it hasn't yielded in the type of results that you thought it will yield. You started a business and it's taking much longer for those clients to start coming along and to start paying you. And you ask yourself, did I make the right decision? Did I make the right choices? I want to share with you three questions that you can ask to help you determine whether the path you are on is the right path. Because you see, difficulty is not always a sign that you are on the wrong path. It is possible to be doing the right things. It is possible to have made the right choices. It is possible to be on the right path. Yet, things are not as easy as they should be. I think the flip is the case as well. It is not true. That because things are going well, then one is on the right path. One could be having it easy on the wrong path for their lives. But I believe if you get to consider these questions and think of the answers for yourself, it will help you decide on whether you should keep going on this path that you've chosen, or if you should consider taking a different path. And this is not only relevant for the end of the year. It's also relevant at any time, indeed, in our lives, when things are not going The way we thought they should go. So here are my questions. Question one, to help you decide whether you're on the right path or if you should change course and go in a totally different direction. Here we go. Question one. Question one is, is the path Helping me to fulfill my purpose. So this path that I have chosen that is now a little bit difficult, that is not going as well as I thought it would go. Is it helping me fulfill my purpose? Answer to this question. answers the question of whether or not you should stay on your path. And this is what I think, this is what I believe, that if you are on a path and if it is helping you fulfill your purpose, if it is helping you do what God sent you to this world, Then no matter how difficult it gets, no matter how tough it gets, you should stay on that path because purpose is everything. It's a no brainer for me really as I think about this. Purpose is everything. What is success without purpose? What is success really? What, what is this thing we call success? Who marks the work at the end of the day? Who determines whether you've passed in this game of life? It is the person who set the purpose for your life. So if you do everything that you can do, if you chase every acolyte that you can chase, if you make every money that you can make, if you get every praise that you can get, but you do not fulfill the one purpose for which you were placed on planet earth, then you would have failed. So if you're on the path of purpose, no matter how difficult it gets, you better stay on that path because this is the thing that That determines whether your life was successful or not. This is the thing that determines whether your life was worth it or not. This is the thing that determines whether you should have been born or not. Purpose is everything. Purpose is your why. It's the reason you were born. Created is the reason God sent you here. And I believe that we don't choose our purposes. God reveals our purpose to us. You do have a purpose. There's a purpose to your life. There's a reason God sent you to planet earth. And there are a few things about your purpose. There are a few things, even without knowing you that I know about your purpose. I know that your purpose has something to do with God. I know that your purpose is in relationship with God, that you can only find your purpose by or through a relationship with God. I also know that your purpose is not just about you. I know that you were sent to this world with a solution. You were sent here with an answer to a question. You were sent here to help a particular group of people that only you can help because your unique makeup, Your unique frame, where you were born, where you grew up in, the experiences you've had through life, your education, your failures and successes, the things you've gone through in life, your scars and everything that has happened to you have framed you to be able to provide a solution to a unique kind of person that no other person can provide that solution to. So if you do not provide that solution to them. That person will not be able to get that solution in the way that you alone could provide that solution. That's what I know about your purpose. So I'm pleading with you in this episode to please stay on the course, stay on the path of purpose. If you have found your purpose, no matter how difficult it is, no matter how much it looks like you're not making progress, no matter how much it looks like you're not getting the results you thought you would get. Be content. Please stay on the path of purpose because it may not be working for you yet. But I guarantee you, as long as you're on the path of purpose, something is happening in you. The path you're on is working in you. You're changing. You're becoming better. You're growing. You're becoming stronger and you are becoming more of the person that can fulfill that purpose that you were sent here to fulfill. So, if you're wondering, should I change the path I am on in life? Ask yourself, is the path I am on helping me fulfill my purpose? If it is, then stay on that path because that's the singular reason you were created. That's the singular reason you exist. Number two question to help you decide whether you should change the path you're on, or if you should keep going, is the question, is this path helping me maximize my potential? Is this path helping me to maximize my potential? Because you see, you were sent here for a purpose, but you were also given potential. There are things that are locked up in you. Things I describe, As your gift, your inherent capacity to meet a need, to fulfill a function. It was putting you as a seed form. It was putting you in an undeveloped form. And the path that you should go on in life is the path that helps you explore that potential continuously is a path that helps you maximize that potential so that when you come to the end of your life, you're able to look back and say, Hey, I did everything I could. You're able to look back and say, ah, my life didn't quite go the way I thought it would go. I didn't quite get all the success I thought I would get. I didn't quite get all the accolades I thought I would get. But one thing I can say for myself is that I did everything I could. I wrote all the books I thought I could write. I sang all the songs I thought I could sing. I helped all the people I thought I could. I could help. There was nothing in me that I did not explore and try to use. I believe one of the greatest tragedies in life is a life with unfulfilled potential. It was, Dr. Miles Monroe who said that the richest places in the world are not the gold mines of South Africa, not the oil rigs of Saudi Arabia. Rather, they are the cemeteries because in there are songs that were never written, are books that were never written, are businesses that were never started are inventions that were never created. There's so many reasons why people don't pursue their potential. Fear of standing out, fear of being different, fear of not following the norm, fear of doing something new that nobody has done before, but also difficulty, difficulty on the path of exploring your potential. If in this year, you've tried to do something new, you've tried to explore your potential, you've tried to respond to that desire within you to do something, to go on a course, to go on a path that is the only rationalization you can find is a desire from within you. But then you started and you're finding that it's more difficult than you thought. Ask yourself, is this helping me use more of what I know that I have? I know I can sing. So is this path helping me sing more than I have ever sung? I know I can write. Is this path helping me write more than I have ever written before? I know I can encourage people. Is this path helping me encourage more people than I have ever encouraged before? If the answer to that question is yes, if the path you're on is helping you use more of your potential, then irrespective of how difficult it is, irrespective of how challenging it must seem, please receive this as an encouragement from me to you today to say, keep on keeping on. Don't give up because you are on the right path. My third and final question to help you determine whether you should stay on that path or whether you should change and pivot and start something different is very simply, is this path making me more productive? Am I producing more? And how do I define Productivity. Very simply, I define productivity as impact. I define productivity as your legacy. I define productivity as the difference you are making, especially in the life of people. I define productivity as the things that would not have happened if you were not there. If you did not walk into this person's life, the change this person would never have experienced. If you did not write that book, the difference. That people would not have experienced. If you did not teach that course, if you did not sing that song, if you did not do this thing, the things that will not have happened. That's how I define productivity. So ask yourself, this difficult path, this path that is not going the way I thought it would go, that has all of a sudden turned so challenging is it helping me make more of a difference in people's lives? If your answer to that question is yes, then please stay on that path. Don't change. Don't pivot because purpose is the reason you are here. Your potential is what God gave you to make a difference in the world and you are here to make a difference in people's lives. So keep doing that no matter how challenging it may seem. Now, you may ask then, if I am on the right path, Why are things so challenging? Why are things so difficult? Let me give you just two points and I won't go into detail in this. But number one, it may just be a matter of time because nothing good comes easy. You've got to realize that there is a natural order in life. There is a natural People talk about overnight successes. People talk about just making it like that and starting something and it flourishes like that. But I guarantee you, take a closer look, you will realize that that thing that looks like it was a quick success, that looks like it was an overnight success, there has been some background work done. It was built on something. Because the natural order of things is for growth to take time. Growth does not happen instantaneously. That's just the way it is. So it may just be that you're growing. It may just be that you are getting better. It may just be that you're becoming the person who will get the results and be able to sustain the results. That you so desire because you don't want to grow and become so big that you don't have the capacity to carry those results and those experiences that you're hoping and praying for today. So stay on the path. The only way you will get those results is If you stay on the path of purpose, stay on the path of your potential and stay on the path of productivity, touching lives, making a difference in people's lives. And finally, It may be because you need a little bit more wisdom in walking in this path. And what do I call wisdom? Very simply, wisdom is the application of the right knowledge. Wisdom is doing the right information. We live in a world where there's so much information. You go on YouTube, you can watch a video on virtually Everything. You find free information everywhere you look. But, if knowledge was the solution to the problems of our world, we will not have any problems at all. Because the solution is not just knowledge. The solution is wisdom. It is the application of the right knowledge. So, in your path, I want to ask you, do you have the right knowledge? But more importantly, are you applying it? Applying the right knowledge that will take you in the direction of the path that you are choosing. Solomon the wise man said in the Bible that the labor of the foolish wearies him because he does not know how to go into the city. There is a way to get to the place that you want to get to. The dreams, the aspirations that you have, that you've had, and it looks like you are not making as much progress as you intended to make. Find the right knowledge. Apply that knowledge. Become a doer and not just a talker. Be a person who acts on the knowledge that you have. I guarantee you, if you're on the path of your purpose, If you're on the path of your potential, if you're on the path of productivity, before you know it, you will get those results that you desire. God bless you. Thank you for listening to another episode and take care. Bye bye.