What I learned from A Lion Tracker's Guide to Life on how to find your fire again.

This article covers briefly a few key points I took away from A Lion Tracker's Guide to Life that you can apply to help (re)discover your fire and purpose for your career and life.

I wanted to write this article to share what I learned from the A Lion Tracker's Guide to Life. A book that is as exciting throughout as it sounds. The book was written for anyone who has set out following their purpose, but have somehow lost their way and don't know how to get back. It was written for those of us who have ever felt like we have 'lost the trail'. For those of us who have felt like we lost our fire. For those of us who have felt (or feel) stuck. My hope is that this article will be a vehicle to help you walk away with a new sense of hope and that it will convince you to take the time to read and meditate on this awesome book. I'm sharing this from a place of personal experience. It helped me when I discovered it. And I'm so glad that I did.

One addition to my philosophy shelf this year is the short yet powerful read A Lion Tracker's Guide to Life. It's is easy to enjoy. It quickly draws you in with a backdrop to the book that feels alive. The fascinating life of the author and the ancient, generational wisdom passed down in the bush are twisted together masterfully into his stories. I was able to sit down and read it in the span of a few hours, even taking a few breaks throughout to let my mind wander and think on many of the points made. It's a short read at only 130 pages in length, made even more digestible by its actual pocket-book size; making the 130 pages turn that much faster. The entire book can easily be read in an afternoon or evening. But the lessons in it will stick with you for much longer. For such a short read, it packs an incredibly powerful punch.

The author, Boyd Varty, relates his experiences and lessons learned as a lion tracker in South Africa to that of finding and tracking your own purpose in life. And what to do when you've lost that trail. It is packed with wisdom and metaphors that will help you as you track and pursue your own adventures in life. Much of what I cover below is what resonated with me. But I promise there is so much more tucked away in this little book. I highly encourage you to purchase your own copy and take the time to go on this adventure yourself.

When I am reading a book, I like to underline certain sentences that resonate with me or jot notes down in the margins of the pages where the writing speaks to me the most. And with this book, I marked up and jotted notes on more pages than I didn't. My first note was actually in the prologue. Before page one! I marked a statement that, for me, set the tone for the entire book. And that's where we'll start.

"Inside you is the wild part of you that knows what your gift, purpose, and mission are. That part of you is wild and elusive. It cannot be captured, as it is always evolving. To live on its trail, you must become a tracker."

On page 12, Boyd writes "I suspect that part of being a man is that you will as a matter of course fall asleep in your own life. It will happen. Knowing this seems important to me. The journey out of that will begin not with the call but with the desire to hear the call... The same men who had told me about falling asleep in their lives reported amazing things when they turned their attention back on and started to tune in and listen for a path back to life." This book is about waking up. About putting yourself in a place to where you can hear your calling again. And about how to follow it. And how you'll inevitably mis-read some signs along the way. And when you have mis-read it and find yourself at a dead end, it has helpful insights about how to go back to where you were certain you heard the call last. The last time you were certain you were on the right trail. On the right path. And it shares wisdom about how to re-evaluate where you might have went wrong. And when you're lost, how to rediscover the trail to get back on the right path.

Chapter 6 is titled 'Losing the Track'. At the time of my first reading, this chapter resonated with me deeper than any other. This chapter was actually the reason I bought the book. I had heard the author discussing it on a podcast and knew I had to read deeper into this section of thought. And I'm glad I did. It was medicine for my soul at a time I needed it.

From page 73, in Chapter 6: "There is a last track and then it's gone. Trails can be like life in that way. One minute you are clear on a path and the next instant it is gone. You get fired, you lose a loved one, the company fails, you retire, she dumps you, you get divorced. Where you thought you were going vanishes. Who you thought you were is lost." It expands on this thought through the following paragraphs. Some of which, the portions I marked and noted in my own copy, I've included below. These are the words that spoke the loudest to me of any words in the entire book, and I'll leave you with them. Perhaps they'll resonate as loudly for you as they did me, and provide you with solace as you learn to track your own path.

"A code of instructions for when you lose the trail: Accept that losing the track is part of tracking. Go back to the last clear track. There is information there....Any place you do not find a track is not wasted. But part of refining where to look....Trackers try things. The tracker on a lost track enters a process of rediscovery that is fluid. He relies on a process of elimination, inquiry, confirmation; a process of discovery and feedback...going down a track and not finding a track is part of finding the track...the 'path of not here'. No action is considered a waste, and the key is to keep moving, readjusting, welcoming feedback". The path of not here is part of the path of here."

Again, the above are only a few excerpts that spoke to me when I read through this book. I would highly encourage you to take a couple of hours and read through it yourself. The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life is a packed with key insights that you can reflect on, again and again, throughout your career and life.