What’s In Your Way?

The Woman and the Boulder

“The best part about the past is that it’s over. And the future is coming.”
–Richard Bandler

There once was a woman who had been talking about her problems for so long she didn’t know who she would be without them.

Every day this woman would walk home, taking a long and winding path to get there. Sometimes she would try to take a short cut, just to see if there was a quicker way to get home safely. However, whenever she took this short cut she always came upon a huge boulder blocking her way.

This boulder had been there for many years and for many years she tried to chip away at it. She even hired people to help her. She sent the pieces she’d managed to chip off to be analyzed and labeled so she might find out what kind of obstacle she was dealing with.

Suddenly one day she realized she had been so focused on the big boulder blocking her way, stopping her from moving forward, that she had missed something very important.

Focus on Everything That’s Not The Problem

We all do that sometimes. We focus so much on our obstacles and issues, that we miss the things that can help us easily move past them.

The woman realized that when she looked to her right she noticed a little pathway, a pathway she hadn’t noticed before.

When she walked along this pathway she was able to make it around the very boulder she’d been wasting all that time dealing with. She even noticed how much sunnier it was now that the rock was behind her.

The question isn’t about why, it’s about how. And maybe what can we learn from all this is that we can leave it all behind.

“Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.”
–Old Maori proverb

Try This

What’s in your way? Is there something you’ve been focusing on, a problem or past issue, that’s been keeping you from moving forward?

Take some time for reflection, jot down some ideas in a journal for five minutes without judging what you’re writing. Set it aside and look at it a few days later.