Following the Yellow Brick Road into 2011

“The road to success is always under construction.” ~ Lily Tomlin

I’ve always felt there is a “path” that I am destined to follow in my life and if I just found that path and stayed on it, life would be bright and I would always know my direction. Several years ago when I committed to being a full-time professional writer, I knew I had finally set foot on the right road.

But, this past year there were times I wondered why the path seemed so twisty and rocky. There were detours and dead ends and difficult climbs. And I thought that perhaps I had taken a wrong turn and was heading in the wrong direction. How else could I explain why the path was not as shiny and straight as I thought it should be?

Then, yesterday I read a great quote from financial coach Chellie Campbell, who apparently has struggled with the same question. She writes:

“Talking with my friend Korey, I agonized over the road I have taken and how many foibles and failures marked the way. I regretted the many times I strayed from the road I knew to be straight and true, the path to health and well-being, to financial success, loving relationships, spiritual peace.

“Why did I leave the road so many times?” I moaned.

“You were still on the road, Chellie,” she told me. “You were just in the shitty part of it.”

I love this perspective. In very basic terms it tells me that obeying the rules, being nice, doing our best and staying on the straight and narrow path won’t always result in rainbows and roses. No matter how good we are, there are still steep hills, roadblocks, detours and rocks on our journey. Sometimes the road is bright and paved with opportunities. Other times it is rutted and dark with no directional signs.

It reminds me of the Yellow Brick Road in the Wizard of Oz, which takes Dorothy and her companions through beautiful flowers and fields, and dark, dangerous forests. It is all the same path and, like Dorothy, we’ve got to stay on it to keep moving forward and find our “Oz”. Along the way we may be tripped up by a Bad Witch or two, and helped along by a few Glenda Good Witches. We’ll stumble like the brainless Scarecrow, be afraid like the Cowardly Lion, and sometimes feel empty like the Tin Man, but each misstep teaches us patience, perseverance and fearlessness.

So, on this New Years Eve, I resolve to “keep-on-keeping-on” in 2011, to reach out and help others who may be stumbling on their own path, and to always remember that success is not about reaching the mountain top, it’s about the journey that takes me there.

Happy New Year!