The Road Less Traveled

Who do we feel most loved by? People who empower us and ignite our own capability? Or those who do our work for us? Whether we're talking about our spouse, friends, or children, I don't think it's loving to do anything (repeatedly, long-term) for them that they can do for themselves. Read this article here: https://substack.com/@roadlesstraveledonline/p-190405800

Chris tells his story of escaping Canada and sailing solo to Mexico. Plenty of obstacles appeared, dangers threatened, and misadventures occurred, but God provided and rescued at every step along the way. To learn more and support Chris' ministry: https://www.kingdomvoyages.org

From: https://substack.com/home/post/p-156816900 Each and every action has a direction. We need a vision, but it need not be an inflexible blueprint of specific timelines and circumstances. The first step is know yourself. What are you good at, what do you love? What brings you to life, and what opportunities are calling to you? Which lofty ideals, indeed, appealed to you repeatedly since you were...

How do we transcend the predictable? From: https://substack.com/home/post/p-157117721 Jordan B Peterson: "If you say the truth and nothing else, you will have an immense adventure as a consequence. You will not know what is going to happen to you, but you have to let go of clinging to the outcome. You have to let go. The truth will reveal the world the way it is intended to be revealed. The conseq...

Perhaps the only way we ever create the room to love others selflessly, to truly desire their growth and flourishing, is to become radically involved in our own journeys.

Matthew McConaughey, Greenlights, page 205 paints a beautiful picture of why the word "unbelievable" diminishes the very things we all want to believe more in.

This excerpt from Carl Jung's The Red Book, pages 311-312, explore the idea that striving to see our efforts take shape in the material world bind up the actual power we possess within our minds to remain good, even to be fulfilled at all. Notice the connection between binding up our efforts in material shapes, and the unconscious proclivity to manipulate others and take them into the service of o...

To what extent do you want to live your life as a prey animal? In this episode, I explore the dangers and benefits of breaking free from the herd, the marked zebra phenomenon, and missing the safety of what you've left behind. Jordan B. Peterson & Warren Smith Interview: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast/id1184022695?i=1000679402431 Warren Smith Youtube Channe...

The greatest burden a child must bear is the unlived life of the parent. (Carl Jung) When we as parents (or coaches, mentors, teachers) don't actualize our own potential or hearken to our callings, we have one of the following effects on those following and looking up to us: We live vicariously through them, putting pressure on them to finish our dreams for us. Then, nobody lives their lives, beca...

From Carl Jung’s The Red Book, page 187

The cumulative effect of small stressors, and how they bring back negative inner narratives. This episode is something I wrote in 2015, when I was working through my eating disorder and just beginning to learn what it means to take care of myself so I could extend care to others. Blog post: https://www.roadlesstraveled.online/post/we-live-in-a-pixel Life is a picture, but you live in a pixel: http...

Abel brought his best and got more. Cain didn’t, destroyed his ideal, and was left with less, his lineage becoming murderers. Abraham gave his best, and got it back. He sacrificed his best to what is highest . JBP also was talking about the Pieta, the mother’s crucifixion. The job of the mother being to offer her son (her best, herself) to the world, for it to have its way with him. So doing, our...

When I see someone dedicated to their craft, I am drawn to their character. When I see someone who’s been willing to buck the status quo of comfort and complacency, delay gratification in any way, alone if need be, I become less afraid of success and the loneliness that I previously perceived would accompany forward momentum. These single-minded growers keep me inspired, by the fact that they are...

Compose: To put together, construct. Confidence: To have full trust The etymology of these words reveals why we are so drawn to confidence and composure, and can be found here: https://www.roadlesstraveled.online/post/composure-and-confidence These things happen iteratively, laboriously, and always intentionally.

Love and self control combined? That's power. https://www.roadlesstraveled.online/post/on-defibrillation

A spectrum of modes with which to operate in our worlds: Isolation > Self Sufficiency - Dependability - Interdependence > Codependence How do we avoid the extremes, build a strong sense of self, and stop feeling at the effect of all of the opinions around us? How do we fortify our own confidence, so we can relate from a place of strength? What is the bridge between the extremes of isolation...

Beauty tells you to be more than you are. Beauty tells you to aspire to that which is beyond you. What bothers you? That’s what calls you forward into who you could be. That’s what calls you forward into participating in the process of setting the world right, and there’s meaning in that. https://www.roadlesstraveled.online/post/overwhelmed-by-beauty

Healthy non-sexual physical touch has been banished from proper society. We are the only primates who live this frigidly. Where did the innocence go? Why do we automatically conflate feelings of appreciation, understanding and admiration with a desire to consume or own the person? What if we could love without seizing and grasping at the object of our affections? What if we learned to do that so w...

What are they distracting us from? Dis: The dis prefix is a negative prefix that means “not, or none.” Traction: The force that causes a moving thing to stick to the surface it is moving along The power that is used to pull something A way of treating broken bones in which a device gently pulls the bones back into place The support, interest, etc., that is needed for something to succeed or make p...

I am where I am supposed to be. There is a path set before me, each choice leading to the next, that only I can walk. Only I can play these roles and exert this influence on the quest unique to me. Nothing is wasted. It’s a mandate. It’s a beckoning to come out of the shadows, shake off the fear. To be fully engaged in now, and use the past as fuel to walk boldly into an unfamiliar future. https:/...

I rarely read books or essays multiple times, but this one was an exception. It’s called Completeness, Self-Sufficiency, and Intimacy in Seneca’s Account of Friendship, written by Carissa Phillips-Garrett. Carissa takes us on an expanding and provoking journey, meandering through many contradictory lenses through which to practice friendship. She explores at length the tension between self suffici...

We could live on a constant series of small highs from voluntarily taking on discomforts that make us better. It's not a harder road than the "comfortable" one, once you're on it. Inspired by: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/huberman-lab/id1545953110?i=1000587689256 https://www.roadlesstraveled.online/post/flipping-the-script-on-dopamine-sourcing

When we cannot change our circumstances, we are challenged to change ourselves. - Viktor Frankl Perhaps God's plans have more to do with our development, leading to our fulfillment, than they do with our ease. https://www.roadlesstraveled.online/post/grit-is-developed-when-there-is-no-escape

Isn't it more of a compliment to be chosen from a place of strength, rather than to be used to fill holes in someone else's life? Wouldn't that mean that those people, those growers, see and accept me as I am, while simultaneously believing enough in my trajectory and potential to know they won't need to leave me. And how do we build the net, in relationships, to catch us when we DO need someone d...

People actually don't know where you stand unless you tell them. What changed my life the most was a combination of love and truth, encouragement to be more than I was birthed out of a place of being accepted and valued exactly where I started. https://www.roadlesstraveled.online/post/saying-words