When I sought help to work out a troubled marriage and gain a new perspective, I reached for The Road Less Traveled by Scott Peck, M.D. After I read his book, my outlook on life changed forever.
His book’s insight hit me over the head with a reality check. There were only two roads in life I could follow, not three, not four. I could either live my life on the Love Path or the Fear Path. As I further digested Scott Peck’s message, I was struck by an even greater surprise. The road less traveled by most everyone was what? Love!
Does that surprise you? It did me. What makes the love path so challenging is it requires faith, complete trust in the unknown, and a total surrender of your ego. While living a life of quiet desperation is not what is expected for any of us, we often end up there because we want to control the outcome and protect our image.
Every paragraph made it abundantly clear. I had lived a good 80 % of my life on the Fear Path. Being kind or thoughtful wasn’t enough. Tears streamed down my face. Painfully, I had to accept the truth. For most of my life, I had bobbed like a marionette – whatever anyone wanted me to do, believe, or pursue, I did. Why? I thought if I did what everyone wanted, there would be peace, and everyone would be happy.
But guess who got sabotaged in the process? Me. Without realizing it, I was piling on more layers of frustration, anger, and hurt. I resented how none of my opinions or goals were ever accepted ‒ like my belief at sixteen in the possibility of past lives, or how my goal to major in journalism was dismissed, or when I wanted to start college in September, not January when I graduated.
