Are You Making This Mistake With Your Life?

Rod Pickett
2 min readAug 12, 2024

If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s.
Joseph Campbell

Ever been driving at night on an unfamiliar road through a dark, hilly countryside with patches of fog?

The headlights have to be kept on low beam to avoid being reflected back from the fog.

At the crest of every hill, the road appears to drop off into the unknown.

It takes every bit of self-control to keep moving instead of freezing when the visibility of the road ahead is measured in inches, not in feet or yards.

As the car starts its descent down the hill, the headlights once again shine down on the road just in time to warn you of any curve to the right or the left.

Your stress eases somewhat until you come to the top of the next hill.

Life sometimes feels like that.

We tell ourselves that the road will be straight and flat just over the next hill.

If we can just make it through this week, things will settle down, and we will be able to relax.

But next week will have difficulties of its own.

Fortunately, the uncertainty does not just stay at 11 forever.

The sun comes up.

The fog dissipates.

The road smooths out.

Temporarily.

Life is an adventure.

And there can be no adventure without challenges and uncertainty.

If we expect life to be like a stroll in the park — or even a tour in an air-conditioned bus — then we are setting ourselves up for dis-stress.

If instead, we embrace the challenges and lean into the uncertainty, we can experience the good stress of excitement.

Life doesn’t begin “once things settle down.”

Life happens right now in the middle of all the challenges and uncertainty.

We can’t delay saving for the future until we have extra money.

We can’t put off building relationships with our fellow travelers.

We can’t wait until we have time to invest in ourselves.

The time is right, right now.

What have you been putting off until you had time to take care of it?

Did you really think one of these days you were going to find an extra hour in your closet or a few extra minutes in the cushions of your sofa?

We don’t find time; we make time.

Make time today to start that project you’ve been saving for when you had time.

— Rod Pickett

Now available at Amazon: The Courageous Heart: Wisdom for Difficult Times in paperback and eBook, an Eric Hoffer Award Finalist, a must-read for anyone seeking inspiration and guidance. Get your copy today.

--

--

Rod Pickett

Rod Pickett is a writer, pastor, teacher, photographer, real estate broker, personal trainer, consultant, trained hypnotist, woodworker and life-long learner.