Being pushed out to the edge

When you’re a Pathfinder – when you follow your own path instead of the norm – you often feel like you’ve been pushed out to the edge – by society, by circumstances, by other people.

The edge is uncomfortable. The things that work for most people don’t work for you. You feel different, alone, unsteady.

And then someone starts talking about ‘finding your path’ and you think to yourself, “Whoa, hold your horses. I’m doing my best to survive out here on the edge. If I do have a path, it would surely lead me even farther out, even farther away from the comfortable center, and I don’t think I could handle that. I’m barely getting by where I am.”

“I’m only out here on the edge because I was forced here. And now you’re asking me to choose to go out even farther, to even more distant, perilous, unfamiliar territory? No thanks.”

Why it really sucks to be a Pathfinder

The truth is that it’s not like that at all.

Yes, there is a center of what’s commonly accepted in society. The tried and true, the paths well-traveled. Yes, it’s true that you don’t fit in there – even if you can fake it. Yes, the center exists, and yes, you are on the edge.

But that’s not why the edge is uncomfortable.

The edge is uncomfortable because you aren’t in touch with your center.

When you find your own center, you redraw the map. You stop orienting your heart’s compass toward – or away from – what “they” do, and start orienting it toward your own path. The mainstream becomes just another territory on the map. It loses the power it currently holds over you.

What you resist persists. True freedom is defining yourself as yourself, not defining yourself as anti- anything.

Finding your own center

Finding your path makes your life more comfortable, not less comfortable. Finding your path relieves the pressure of trying to define yourself according to standards that don’t fit you – or trying to rewrite those standards.

Finding your path is finding your own center.

To find your path, join the Pathfinding Group. Only 2 more weeks left to join!