Last week, we had a trip to the coast side of the country. I have never traveled down there since I arrived Australia. So, I was a bit skeptical to drive as one of my fears is driving to a new place for the first time. So, my wife suggested we get a GPS navigator to guide us in the journey. I agreed, but still skeptical. “This is just an electronic device”, I said to myself. Can we actually depend on this? A few days before the trip, we went to the shop and got one.
Somehow, I was still not satisfied. I can’t remember what I was doing, but probably checking out the routes to our destination until I came across an app I feel in love with — it is called ‘here we go’ and it is a navigation app. After downloading it and going through it, I thought that was a better option. It gave me three routes to choose from, one of which a friend had earlier told me was the best to take.
On the day of the journey,
I set both the app on my iPhone and the GPS navigator. Then, my wife asked, “which one are you using?” I told her I had planned to follow the app as I am not sure of the route given by the GPS navigator. So, we headed off. About 2 hours later into the journey, my phone ran out of battery power. I had no other option that to reserve the remaining 20% for call purpose on arrival at our destination.
That meant that we were left with just the GPS navigator I had found too hard to trust. And this distrust was solely coming from me because I have traveled once with a friend depending only on GPS. Bit why I was having this doubt was quite unclear.
At a point, we missed the direction as a result of not getting the GPS’s instruction. Interestingly, it kept telling us which road to turn to and where to change course until we found our way back. So, we continued on our journey from that moment onward, depending on the GPS navigator, trusting it totally that it was right until we got to our destination.
The sole lesson from this for me was to learn to trust the journey when you have a guide. You see, in life, we are all on a journey. In most cases, to a destination we know not how to get to. It could be in our career, marriage and relationship, finances, study, calling and purpose, leadership, business, and so on.
You may be dreaming of becoming a writer, an actor, a speaker, a researcher, a teacher, a scientist, a pastor, a sportsman or woman, an artist, a film maker, a life coach, a business person, a diplomat, a youth worker, a volunteer and you are wondering how to get there because it is your first time.
Trust the journey.
In such situation, we may find ourselves battling with distrust in the area of who is offering to guide us. In your case, it may not be a GPS navigator. It could someone you look up to as a mentor or role model. Even though you may not be sure of what they are saying, you could trust that they have taken that path before.
You can leverage on their expertise and experience and trust that you are in the right hands. That fact that they’ve gone through that path is a testament to the fact that you can trust them, especially when there are results to show.
And also know that everything that happens on the way are all working to get you where you are going. When there is a delay, it could be stop you from a disaster ahead. When there is no delay, it could be so you don’t miss anything ahead of you.
This may be the challenge may have had so far in the year. And trust me, there is no time to waste in waiting until you can see the end of the journey from where you are. Sometimes, you just have to do one thing.
Trust the journey.
#MakingExcellenceCommon
Apeh Omede
Photo by Casey Fyfe on Unsplash
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