Take a few moments to consider that quote.
Are you going to know what you want to do in life by collecting all the advice from your family, your friends, and from strangers on the street–or are you going to find your path by creating it, forging yourself in the fire with each, burning passing step?
You and I both know that the answer in buried deep in the second half of that question.
Twain said it best. Being on the side of the majority, doing what’s common and expected in life, should give you major pause.
I’m not saying that doing what’s common is automatically bad. That’s not what this is about at all.
What I’m saying is that we spend most of our lives exploring the default options. We consume what we’re told to consume and enjoy what we’re marketed to enjoy.
But I have a feeling that if you’re reading a mental health newsletter article you are probably looking for more than surface-level happiness: you’re looking for a life of meaning.
So what should you do with your life?
Unfortunately, I can’t tell you that. And I think you knew that coming in.
But going out, after leaving this article, I hope you came away with something else–the fact that the biggest answers to your life’s questions are not presented to you on a platter, but are hidden in the shade of the struggle itself, in the pain, in the heartache, and in the roots that sprouted long ago, giving you still-growing trees that are yours alone to climb.