Go Confidently - Henry David Thoreau

When I was trying to decide what to post about this morning, I finally decided on the Go Confidently quote from Henry David Thoreau. In doing a Google search, to ensure I remembered the quote correctly, I came across the Walden.org site.  Guess what I learned.  The quote, as I remembered it, is a misquote. I have to admit I am bummed.  I really liked the misquotation. In fact, I prefer it to the correct quote. However, I decided to continue using the correct quote for today’s blog post because it still fits and the message is important. [pullquote]If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life he imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. –Henry David Thoreau [/pullquote]

I love what Thoreau is encouraging us to do.  We need to live confidently and seek to live our own lives. This will lead to a much better life than the one we would have trying to live the one that we believe everyone wants us to live.  Now anyone who knows me in real life knows that I am not the world’s most confident person.  I am very apt to make decisions based on what others think. So I know that I need to listen to my own advice.  Maybe that is why I am writing this. I need to find my own path that will bring me happiness. Not walk down whatever road I think will make everyone else happy with me..  Now I am not saying to pick a path simply to do the opposite of what others expect. If this is not the life you truly want to live, it is not going to make you happier to be contrary just for the sake of doing it.

Now someone might come along and say “But Cindy, you are a believing Christian. Doesn’t that contradict the idea of leading your own life?”. I don’t believe it does. As long as my desire to lead a life based on the teachings of Christ is my actual desire and not the desire of family or friends that I am acting on simply to make them happy then I truly believe it is definitely a part of living your own life.  The same could be asked of someone who claims to not believe in a higher power of any type.  They are only following their path if they truly do not believe and are not simply embracing a lack of belief in order to do what is popular.

Is finding your own path and leading the life others want for you easy? No. But it is the path to happiness. It is the path that will bring success. It is the path we need to follow. I truly believe this.

This week, I am going to begin working on going confidently in the direction of my dreams.  It definitely won’t be easy for me. However, it’s something I need to do. I would encourage you to begin living your own life as well. Join me as we find the paths that will lead to true happiness.