A life lived well and true - Day 12

Day 12

12 months of the year, depicting rural tasks
in the Salzburg manuscript, early 800s
One of the oldest calendars of its kind
in Vienna's National Austrian Library
Image from Wikimedia Commons

I am honoured to count David Goddin as a good friend, as well as a highly effective professional expert whom I value and enjoy working with. He regularly blogs on business related matters (www.peopleperformancepotential.com) and actively uses Twitter (@ChangeContinuum) as well as other forms of social media. He has a quick, dry wit, a calm intelligence and a depth of compassion that combines with his genuine interest in others to make him stand out from the crowd. After a successful career, culminating as a COO, David founded his own business which helps others thrive, particularly during times of change. David is values driven and brave, as the following post demonstrates...

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It's funny. Trying to think about what I might write on the theme of "Paths & Perceptions" I realise just how far from "the path" I have wandered. It may not be perceptible to you or others but I see and feel it. Thinking back I see that my wandering means that I've been following many paths.

Our English Coasts, 1852 ("Strayed Sheep") - William Holman Hunt
image sourced from the Tate Gallery, London

That makes sense of the unsatisfied feeling I've had on and off. Being on many paths is clearly both stretching and unfulfilling...

Aerial view of Colarado River delta
Found on scienceclarified.com

I know that over the last year or so I've been consciously and deliberately shutting doors. Things I won't do, places I won't go, people I won't be with. It's been important and liberating. It's allowed me to focus more on being me. My perception though was that these doors were on a single path that I've been following. However, I realise that perception was not entirely true - some of those doors I had to shut weren't even on my path... bloody Twitter!

Closed Doors by Estonian artist Miraccoon

Don't get me wrong. This isn't an existential crisis. I know who I am. I know what I need. I know what I value. I know how I can create value. However, this tension can't be sustained anymore. It's ridiculous to even try. I just need to maintain a good perception of my own path.

Is that the challenge of a life lived well and true?

Leaving behind some of those other paths I sense that in liberation there is both a perception of danger and opportunity. A perception that it will test friendships and relationships. I could fail or fall... It's testing my faith and my confidence. There is no other way though is there?

Brave Steps
(bridge in Northern Pakistan)

So I'm saying goodbye and in some cases good riddance to the other paths. I'm sharing my path freely with those important to me, to help them have a truer perception of it and of me. I need their support. It's probably testing how others perceive me - that's good. It's certainly testing my own resolve - that's good too.

It's still a tense time but I know that uneasy tension will pass and change into something better. My path will change and evolve with the landscape of time. I think longer term that is perhaps what I'm looking forward to the most. I trust in it. Perhaps that's the truth of the matter?

A life lived well and true comes from knowing your own path, perceiving it well and trusting it to lead you into the unseen and the unknown.

Path through Happy Valley, Orkney
from www.allfivesenses.com