Are you intentionally walking your path?

Have you ever had that moment where you suddenly look around and wonder where the F**K am I, how did I get here and how do I find my way? I am sure you can look back upon your life and recall many such experiences, from being lost on a hike, to being in a relationship that is miserable, to selling your soul in a job, or carrying an extra 20 pounds.

I’ve had so many of these moments, some have been incredibly funny situations that I can share with you another day. My biggest and most confronting one was on November 10th, 2017, when I embarked on what has now become my annual birthday pilgrimage. I was walking the Camino De Santiago pilgrimage. A 810 kilometer hike starting from France, crossing the Pyrenees into Spain and then walking across the width of Spain.

The path is well marked with yellow arrows pointing the direction either in stone form or marked on walls along the way. I was about 250 kilometers into the pilgrimage and so far I had no real problems, until suddenly I had that moment of realization of where the F**K am I, how did I get here and how do I find my way? I realized that I had not seen a yellow arrow for a long time, I had my head down and to be honest I was completely lost in my thoughts.

I had lost my WAY!

What was more confronting was that I had lost more than just my way on the Camino, I had lost my way in life. I want you to ask yourself, have you lost your way? 

When we are in the normal flow of life it is often quite hard to answer that question because on face value things seem OK. If you had looked at my life before that moment you would think I was very intentional. In fact, I was. I was super intentional about the path I was walking down. The problem was that I was walking down the wrong path. I had chosen a path from a place of lack. I was creating a life full of material abundance and wild adventures trying to fill a void I didn’t know existed within me. This external success had gotten me to a certain point in my life, and I thought I had all that I wanted, but now the hole inside was so large that I could no longer ignore it.

So often we see major life changes as challenging, unfair, a great loss, terrible tragedy (I could go on!) What if instead, we chose to use this time as an opportunity to awaken and to find your path and intentionally walk down it.

I would like to share what has happened to me since that day of crisis, in hopes that it inspires you to start your Intentional Path, and start it today. An important part of the philosophy of being in the Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO) is to speak from a place of experience to provide others the opportunity to listen, and for them to choose what they want to take from it and apply to their personal situations. So, please feel free to pick and choose what resonates with you.

On that day I chose to stop being a victim and start being the hero in my own story (this wasn’t easy and sometimes I can still fall into being a victim for short periods of time). I went on an incredible journey to discover all the different aspects of me that had contributed to losing my way.

This has resulted in healing so many different parts of myself. This ranges from body complexes to feelings of not being good enough or doing enough and the feeling of not being worthy of love. I have healed relationships in my family including reconnecting with my father after an eighteen-year estrangement. I have had some great outward success as well. I have become president of EO Colorado, I’ve led many incredible EO and YPO retreats around the world, I have delivered keynotes to thousands of people, I’ve nearly completed a masters and also run a business.

What I am most grateful for is that I have an incredible friendship group, I live in a wonderful community and I have learned how to love deeper than ever before. This combined with self-love has helped me become truly happy.

I have shared this not to try to say how good my life is, nor convey that its always easy to live intentionally. I have shared it to inspire you to realize that no matter what situation you are in and no matter how badly you may have lost your way, there is always the opportunity to find your way again. You just need to be intentional.

I encourage you to take this time in your life to start visioning and design your Intentional Path. Go forward in time 5 years and embody what your ideal day is like. What do you see, hear, smell, touch and taste? Who is with you, how do you feel, what has the last 5 years been like for you? Remember this is your vision. No limiting beliefs can hold you back. Get clarity on this and then take the first intentional step on a path that is authentically yours.

I get tremendous joy in guiding people and helping them take their lives to this next level. Four ways I do this are through workshops, keynote speaking, facilitating forum and leadership team retreats and personalized coaching sessions where I will take you through my Intentional Path process. This process has worked for everyone that has engaged with it. 

With the current worldwide situation, people’s lives are changing overnight. When this happens we often try to fight to get back to where we were, because we feel like we have lost something and we need to get it back.

What if you have not lost anything at all? What if this is the greatest opportunity that has come your way because you can now see that you weren’t intentionally walking your path. You may have just been given the nudge to step onto your path. The path of abundance, the path of freedom, the path of happiness, and most importantly the path of love.

Please take this step, I can assure you it is worth it!

So before you justify to yourself that you already are being intentional with your life, I want you to answer one final question.

Are you walking your path or are you walking someone else's?