This is my favorite expression. Or perhaps it’s my motto. Either way, it’s something that I believe to be true. Some of my greatest discoveries have come from being aimless or from deviating from the road. It’s how I have accumulated a breadth of professional experience. And it’s how I saw the Petrified Forest in Arizona – I saw the sign and decided to head there. Why not?
It’s this question that gives meandering validity. Why not? How many times do we not ‘just go for it’ or ‘give it a whirl?’ And how many times have we regretted it? There have been numerous times in which I didn’t have the courage to answer the question. Typically on ‘big’ things – the really scary life stuff. But the truth is that I’m rich with experience because I have taken to the road, literally and figurative, and I don’t regret it.
Recently when my brother-in-law Jim was visiting, we went to Hugo’s. Being the hot food aficionado that he is, Jim wanted authentic and spicy, and they served it up. The fried grasshoppers intrigued him – well, all of us actually – and he ordered them. Why not? I had a bite. They were crunchy and spicy and not something I would order again, but I tried them.
There’s a lot to the expression “I gave it a shot,” and I think it’s one of those indisputable moments when you realize that although you didn’t ‘make it’ – whatever that means to the situation – you succeeded because you ‘went there.’ I keep a Lululemon ad on my bulletin board in my office. Of the many inspiring reminders, it says, “do one thing a day that scares you.”
When we’re young, we’re taught not to get lost, to stay on the straight path, and ‘go directly there and back.’ It’s great advice for a kid. But there comes a time when we have to shed the fear of getting lost and go down the path that branches away from the one we take to get to our destination. Perhaps the way to get over the fear is to remember that ‘all who wander are not lost.’
