“…Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

Robert Frost

I read a story about a musician who lost her direction in her music, listening to other people tell her how to make a hit. It is easy to get sidetracked when we are on our way to building a career. We start without really knowing the business, but with a clear sense of ourselves, our unique purpose and gifts. As we go, and the way gets steep and slippery, it is easy to think that other people know the way to where we want to go better than us. We inadvertently lose the clarity and passion we started with. The purpose gets confused with success measured out there.

The path less traveled is the one that brings us back to our center. Sometimes we have to cut through serious brush and tall grass on our way, we are forging the path with a true sense of ourselves. We are not measuring our progress against any external barometer. We stop listening out there and start listening inside. The reason we began is there waiting for us.

It takes courage to choose the path that is not defined for us. You have to hold yourself closely when all the waving and flag raising seems to be pushing you towards something else. You have to trust that there is a voice waiting to be heard and sometimes you have to go on in silence. It can be lonely looking for our own truth. But less lonely by far, compared to the shell that is left of you when you lose touch with your insides.

I have tried this before, this believing that other people knew better than I did what I wanted to write or what shouldn’t be said. My writing is only true when it comes from a place that is true to myself. I have always aspired to teach as many people as possible how to love in a lasting way, but have been loath to measure it by my sales figures. I have always wanted to promote the message, not the messenger.

Now I am taking the bold step of deciding to promote my message and myself. My goal is to put out 100,000 copies of Love that Works and stand up tall and proud in the middle of my road less traveled. I will let the message guide me and pray to not be pulled off track by the lure of something glittering over there.