Do you ever find yourself asking that question?
You might have gone into things with a certain plan—a plan for your day, a plan for your career, heck, even a plan for your life—but you end up in a totally different place than you expected!
This weekend, I visited my brother in Vancouver, and we spent both Saturday and Sunday hiking around some absolutely spectacular lakes and rivers.
(Goofy guy marring the view of the lake is aforementioned brother)
On Sunday, he found a trail along the lakeshore, which was supposed to take us to a beautiful isolated spot overlooking the lake.
But less than a quarter of the way along the trail, heavy rains had washed out the path, so we had to take a detour.
Simple enough? Absolutely not! What should have been a 60-second trek around a rock (down a path we didn’t see) ended up being a 30-minute detour deep into the forest and as lost as one could get while still being within sight of their destination.
We went up and down some pretty insane slopes, to where we were literally sliding on our butts to keep our footing on muddy ground. Finally, after deciding we were going the wrong way, we pulled out our map and hiked in the general direction of “back on track”.
The fact that you’re reading this means we survived and got back to where we wanted to go.
But that got me thinking about my own life…
I never set out to be an author. I didn’t dream about it as a kid, a teenager, or a young man.
I wrote here and there because I enjoyed it, but it was never my dream job.
Like on our misguided hike, I ENDED UP HERE because of some detours and deviations along the way:
- During a time of financial hardships in 2010, I got into doing online surveys to make some extra cash.
- After moving cities with no job in 2011, I searched for online work and signed up for e-newsletters.
- While teaching English, I randomly clicked on a Spam email (from one of those newsletters I’d signed up for) that offered to produce web content and articles for a website. I had no site that needed articles, but figured I could write articles well enough.
- After writing articles for 2 years, I was earning enough to do it full-time, and I could move my family to a new city in 2012.
- Somewhere along the way, I decided I was one day going to write a book. But it would be a non-fiction book. I just needed more life experience in order to make it happen, so it would be something I did in my 30s.
- In 2013, a friend of mine who owns a publishing company read something I’d written at the age of 19 and offered to turn it into a comic book. I decided if I could write something that good BEFORE, what could I do now? That was when I wrote the comic book script that would eventually become The Last March (The Silent Champions Book 6), which led me to writing the script that would be Darkblade Assassin (Hero of Darkness Book 1).
Like our ill-fated hike, my life started out on a certain path, went way off-track in totally unexpected ways, but ultimately ended up someplace amazing. Now, I can’t think of anything else I’d want to do more, and I can’t imagine my life without writing and storytelling.
Sometimes, taking those dangerous, rocky, and steep detours can be terrifying, but pushing through and moving forward might just lead us to truly amazing things in the end!
Your Turn: What Detours Did Your Life Take?
Did you always dream of doing what you’re doing now? Did you follow a neatly planned career path that led you here? Or did life throw you curve balls that forced you to adapt, and you ended up someplace totally different than you expected?
Comment below and tell me how your life either stayed on track or deviated wildly to end you up where you are.