There is always crucial turning points in the human journey.
I was reading in Mark Nepo’s book Seven Thousand Ways to Listen this morning and he was talking about turning points. He was talking about how people who have made major impacts in the world, likely didn’t know they would be to the world, what they ended up being. One of the people he exampled was Nelson Mandela, among others. His point was that Nelson Mandela didn’t KNOW he ws going to be Nelson Mandela, the man of world-wide influence, when he was making decisions at turning points in his life.
We can use any examples for this, from the people who become well-known athletes and actresses, to business moguls and writers. Take your pick. But it doesn’t have to be someone of world-wide fame does it? More people play significant parts and make major contributions in life that are unknown across the globe than are known. And aggragately they touch more lives.
The key point is they all, just like you and I, face turning points in their life. Everyone faces frequent turning points. Any day can be a turning point in reality because each decision we make represents forgoing the alternate decisions and living with the one we make.
For the sake of this message I’m not talking about the choice of paper or plastic at the grocery store. I’m talking about the turning point decisions we know are significant. The times when we are staring at a leap of faith versus what we know. The times when we have the decision to bet on ourselves or relinquish to betting on something else.
The decision on whether to follow our heart or be shot down by our head. The heart is the one that knows what we should be doing…the head is all tangled up in all kinds of rationalizations and doubts and fears and downright made up stuff thats not even real.
I have never regretted following my heart. Most of my failures and mistakes in life came from my head. Understand…a failure or mistake can be as much from inaction as action.
You rarely go wrong following the heart regardless of how it works out in the real world, because it meant you did what you felt was right at the time. Sure, it takes courage to follow the heart and step into the unknown. But you know what? The known is a figment of your imagination. Just because you know today is irrelevant for tomorrow. The thing you feel safe and secure in today…and you can read that as “cage”could be turned upside down tomorrow anyway.
When you face a key turning point, have the courage to follow your heart…then use your head to help you succeed!
