Direction

Last night I decided to take some reading material with me to the gym. I snagged a book I've already read before BUT I took it anyway because I needed some to refresh my memory a bit.

As I scrolled through the highlighted chapters, this section jumped out at me and smacked me in the face:

"Today I will multiply my value a hundredfold.

I am liken to a grain of wheat which faces one of three futures. The wheat can be placed in a sack and dumped in a stall until it is fed to swine. Or it can be ground to flour and made into bread. Or it can be placed in the earth and allowed to grow until its golden head divides and produces a thousand grains from the one.

I am liken to a grain of wheat with one difference. The wheat cannot choose whether it be fed to swine, ground for bread, or planted to multiply. I have a choice and I will not let my life be fed to swine nor will I let it be ground under the rocks of failure and despair to be broken open and devoured by the will of others.

To grow and multiply it is necessary to plant the wheat grain in the darkness of the earth and my failures, my despairs, my ignorance, and my inabilities are the darkness in which I have been planted in order to ripen. Now, like the wheat grain which will sprout and blossom only if it is nurtured with rain and sun and warm winds, I too must nurture my body and mind to fulfill my dreams. But to grow to full stature the wheat must wait on the whims of nature. I need not wait for I have the power to choose my own destiny."

Wow oh wow!

This was precisely what I needed to read last night because then I started to ask myself these questions: Where am I going? Where am I hoping to be? What is holding me back? What am I doing right this very minute to get there? What am I missing?

And then I remembered that I have been gifted with a phenomenal power to choose which direction I will go and I can either accept my life the way it is OR I can make changes. 

This can apply to BIG things... or little things... but the point is, I am in control of me. I am the driver of my personal vehicle through life. It doesn't mean that there aren't obstacles that get in the way, forks in the road where I must choose one way or another, or misleading signs that point me in the wrong direction BUT, I can always pull out my compass and regroup. I can always get back on track and I can always change the end result, too. Nothing is set in stone, giving me the ability to determine which way I will go, who I will be, what kind of life I will live.

Thank you, thank you Og Mandino for reminding me of SO much last night while I was miserably riding that bike. Not only did you make the time pass much quicker- helping me to forget how flipping hard the seat is- you reminded me of just how powerful I really am.

**Words quoted from The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino. If you haven't read it, DO! It's a must read for anyone and everyone! Seriously... so good!

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