A quiet reminder that sometimes comfort and clarity begin when we stop following and start trusting ourselves.
I often turn on the GPS when I travel around town, especially on the highways, even when I know where I’m going. This allows me to monitor traffic issues and to change direction if traffic backs up and there’s a time-saving detour.
A couple of days ago, I was coming back home after a trip to another city near where I live. I first needed to stop at my job for a quick second. I know exactly where to go. The GPS wants to take a different route, one that didn’t make sense to me. I guess the app had chosen the most practical route according to its data.
That happens sometimes. Depending on how to get to a particular location, a GPS can get confusing, taking us here and there, everywhere, when the destination might be closer than what the directions call for.
What struck me when I was driving that day was how frustrated I felt when the app took me down that weird road. I couldn’t navigate it well.
But why did I travel that way in the first place? I knew a much better route. And truthfully, I didn’t need the GPS on anymore anyway. I was in a quiet part of town, far from the highway.
Once I realized this, I turned off the app and drove the way I’d wanted to in the first place.
That’s when it hit me. Comfort.
I’d kept the GPS on because I had gotten so comfortable seeing the screen pop up in my car every time I traveled a certain distance. That familiarity had caused me to simply follow the prompts when I knew a better way.
I compared this to how we sometimes act in life, and bam, mind blown.
How often have we worked toward a goal, only to find out that we were taking the complicated road? Worse, why did we do this, knowing in our hearts that we needed to make a different decision? Why follow a suggestion or direction that we know will get us lost? Or, at the very least, frustrated?
There could be several reasons. Fearing change, trusting a flawed concept, blind loyalty. Or maybe it’s much simpler.
It takes more work to figure things out than it does to follow the crowd. It takes more risk to break away from something that we’ve done repeatedly, because changing habits feels risky. Eventually, our known routines become a safety net.
This new perspective breeds positive energy, doesn’t it? It can allow for so much growth. For me, I am going to look back on my recent writings and see if I can’t shake things up.
Talk soon.
K. Hall
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