Roadblocks and Creating a New Path

Have you ever driven on a freshly paved road or a new highway?

At first the road is nice and smooth and new.

But then as the tires pound the pavement, sun and the snow beat down expanding and contracting the cement and asphalt – cracks begin to emerge. Stress fractures on the roadway surface.

These cracks are small at first. A few here and there – nothing big. Then a pothole or two.

Left unrepaired, the road goes from cracked to crumbling – we are seeing this right now

Governments bankrupt and currencies evaporating.

Bank and retirement accounts plunging.

Businesses failing and fighting to stay above water

Death and disease in our body and mind

Families losing their homes as they struggle to survive

Education systems with rocketing tuitions and unemployed graduates with overwhelming student loans.

The modern marvels and technological advancement, we have also created the most overweight, in-debt, medicated society in the history of the world.

The old rules of the game keep us on the crumbling path of security. The path that tells us that the answers are outside of us and that security comes from external validation.

That security comes from __________ (pick one and fill in the blank – more money, a bigger house, a faster car, good grades, a degree, a resume, your job title (or just having any job), business, retirement check, bank account, credit cards, government, Social security or medicare, because I have my house paid off, because I have no debt, because I’m in the technology industry, retirement account, disability or unemployment checks….and the list goes on and on)

How often have you been told these things? Or said them to yourself and believed them?

External “security” is a false counterfeit to internal certainty.

At its core – security is about hiding. It’s about shrinking instead of expanding.

We are told to stay on this path of security -  conform, fit in, stick with it – and yet as we look the path is literally crumbling before our eyes for current and future generations.

There are 4 primary roadblocks that keep us from living our Core Purpose:

Roadblock # 1: Sacrifice

Sacrifice – is giving up who you really are now for something else. We sacrifice our soul purpose by pleasing, performing, perfecting and proving to other people. We sacrifice our soul purpose by trying to fit in and be something that we are not. We sacrifice our dreams by saying “I am going to delay doing X because I need to do Y.” The list of “shoulds” – that we “should” do something different than what and who we really are.

The false belief that if I sacrifice my life now, I will live my life later.

Truth: by sacrificing my life now, I am choosing to sacrifice my life, calling and core purpose forever

Roadblock # 2: Suppression and Shame

Suppression – is the act of covering, hiding or burying a desire or feeling – Suppression stems from cynicism, fear and a belief that we have to hide in order to be loved or accepted. We suppress our dreams and “lead lives of quiet desperation.”

Suppression and Shame are both forms of hiding. We cannot be our true and full selves. I have to hide to be accepted, loved and paid. I have to change who I am to be who others want or expect or tell me to be. I am supposed to be something other than myself.

Roadblock # 3: Scarcity and Entitlement

Entitlement is expecting something without doing anything

Scarcity is the fear that there is not enough

Both Scarcity and Entitlement stem from a not having and a lack of creation – when we are not creating we experience scarcity and entitlement

I don’t have X because there is not enough Y

So I deserve and am owed _____

I am entitled because I am _____ (special, smart, rich, poor, white, black, tall, short, different, same, a citizen, a loyal employee, a graduate, an MBA, older, younger, better, worse, ugly, beautiful, etc…).

Scarcity and entitlement tell us it’s ok to point the finger blame and criticize. They are both excuses for us not accepting our own responsibility to create.

Roadblock # 4: Sedation

Sedation – is when we soften, numb, and deaden feelings of pain or discomfort.

Life is tough and painful and difficult – so we escape through sedation: numbing and dulling and removing the pain so that we feel nothing. We escape and sedate through video games, TV, Facebook/Internet, drugs, alcohol, sex, music, shopping, workaholic, studyaholic,  prescription medication, fighting/violence, food and eating.

We take sleeping pills at night to sleep, and then drink caffeine and energy drinks all day long to get us through our workday.

We are a society of sedation and quick “fixes.”

But we cannot selectively numb.

When we sedate we deaden pain and discomfort, and in that process we also deaden feelings of joy, love, and peace.

A New Path:

Every day we are given a new choice

A new chance to choose our own path – to choose a new path instead of the one crumbling before us.

A choice to create and expand instead of shrink.

A chance to choose Purpose instead of Sacrifice

A chance to choose Possibility instead of Suppression and Shame

A chance to choose Production instead of Scarcity and Entitlement

And a chance to choose Passion instead of Sedation

There is a new possibility.

A revolution of change and consciousness through creation.

A new consciousness that comes from Purpose, Possibility, Production and Passion – and when you combine those for things you are able to stand in a place of truth and power.

Certainty and power that can only come from creating your own path, and knowing and living your truth.

What path are you choosing to create today?

Red pill or blue pill? Stay asleep or wake up?

That ability and power to create change is in me, and it is in you.

And if you have felt that you were meant to do and be more than you are doing, or that there was something out there that was more for you, or that there was something bigger than you that you wanted to be a part of….then you already know what I am talking about.

If you are waking up to the idea of creating your path, then I welcome you.

The first step is to wake up and recognize who you really are and what your core purpose is.

I’d love to hear your comments – what is that path you are on right now? Where is it leading you?

And what path do you choose to create today? What do those first steps look like for you?

Leave your comments below!