Have you ever gone on a journey, knowing exactly where you are heading and then there is a detour in the road and you find yourself lost?

I have on many occasions (even though I never get lost!) found myself knowing where I want to go, thinking I was on the right path but suddenly finding I am now unsure of the way. There has been other times when I have driven somewhere I have been a couple of times before, but forget which road to take and find myself going around in circles.

This can be like us in life. Many of us know where we are going, the destination is clear, yet for some reason or another we either find ourselves off track or we have been forced to find another route. This is me! I am someone who knows where I am going, but along this journey I have even driven off the known path trying to find a short cut, or been detoured through no fault of my own. I am in that kind of situation today and so like all good men I stop and ask for directions! Well, not exactly, but I have been looking at different routes to get me to where I am heading and investigating whether that road will take me there.

Yesterday I started reading a book (I won’t tell you the name) that is all about a prospective path I could take. I was intrigued by how it started. In the first couple of chapters it went through reasons why you should or should not go down this path, and what the characteristics were of people who went down this path. Then it said, if you are not like these people do something else.

After reading this the thought came to me, when we want to go down a particular path in our careers, education or even our social life then we should check out the type of people who have already made a successful journey through that path. Check out what kind of personality they have, what sacrifices they made and how long it took them before they saw some success.

We often want to do many things, but we are not all wired to do everything. The age old business proverb is, ‘find what you are better than everyone else at, then do it!” This is very true, and someotimes we want to take a route that we will find ourselves in over our heads.

So today, look at your personality, look at your gifts and talents, look at your past experiences and if they all align with people who have successfully gone down a path your are considering, then go for it. If not, look at some other options, it will save you a lot of time and energy in the long run!