Path maker, there is no path.
You make the path by walking.
By walking, you make the path.
{Antonio Machado}
It’s quite a moment when you realize that it’s up to you.
It’s a liberating, frightening moment of recognition that the only way to create your work, your leadership, your life, is by taking the steps that you alone can take.
No matter how many loyal friends, family and colleagues you have supporting you, none of them can take the steps for you. None can provide a trail map for the path you alone must create. They can only cheer you on, provide respite when needed and encourage you to keep walking.
You must take the steps.
The box of maps is empty because we are always trying to substitute someone else’s version of a path for our own. We keep grasping at other people’s experiences as if we can borrow them, an ill-fitting pair of shoes never intended for our feet.
The box of maps will always be empty. Once we understand that, we can get busy walking.
