Beth's Ponderings
“The road to
success is dotted with many tempting parking places.” - Author Unknown
When I read the
quote above, the context was that we should keep our nose to the grindstone and
stay completely focused on our goals, not allowing ANYTHING to sidetrack or
distract us.
Now, if your
definition of success is only to get from Point A to Point B without stopping,
then that advice would be fine, but to be successful in all aspects of life,
that interpretation leaves a lot to be desired, in my opinion.
As anyone who has
ever gone on a road trip knows, it is precisely those “tempting parking places,”
the unexpected stops, detours, and hidden gems along the way, that make the
trip so enjoyable and memorable, not necessarily the main road itself.
And so it is in our
journey through life. Life goes by fast
enough without us racing from birth to death as fast as we can.
It is those “tempting
parking places” that give us a chance to pause and reflect on whether we are
even on the path we want to be on. Maybe
we have been heading the wrong way and didn’t realize it till we stopped. Maybe we followed someone else’s directions
and they were taking us to a different destination than we wanted. Maybe the road conditions aren’t what we
expected.
Those “tempting
parking places” also give us a chance to admire the view around us. What is the point of rushing from one thing
to another if we don’t take the time to appreciate where we currently are, and
what we have accomplished. How will we
learn new things if we stay in our rut and don’t pause to see what else is out
there for opportunities and options.
And, those “tempting
parking places” sometimes have other people parked there. A chance meeting with someone can sometimes
have a more profound affect on our lives than we can even know at the time.
To be successful in life, we need to visit
some of those “tempting parking places” on a regular basis.
Beth
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