13 Pieces of advice on how to follow your path in life

Let’s talk about 13 valuable pieces of advice that will help you make pursuing your life’s path more straightforward.  

What is your path in life?

Your path in life is whatever way you choose to walk. The manifested path you walk with your body and the spiritual one you tread at any given moment. Your path in life is every decision you ever made and will make in the future. It’s what resonates with you: the people you meet and the ones you let go. It’s all the experiences you’ve ever had and will have in the future. Every obstacle, every mountain (the material ones and the ones you create in your mind) you’ve ever climbed are part of your path in life. 

Therefore, I believe it’s crucial to have some tools at hand so you can pursue walking the one destined for you instead of a copy of someone else. Even though I believe you can’t walk a path that is not yours entirely, it’s most definitely possible to take a few wrong turns and get hopelessly lost until you figure out a way out of misery and back to the track you should tread. Some advice will help you make things go smoother and faster. 

Experiencing life can be confusing. 

Living life can be confusing and scary, especially if you continuously get this feeling from deep within you that the average way of the human experience provides too little for you to be desirable and that you should explore something beyond. If you can relate to this feeling, this inner pressure that repeatedly tries to push you gently towards walking a different path than you originally planned, then this blog post I wrote for you. 

Often, what seems easily achievable for many is not our fate. We, my friend, are meant to be living life differently. And I know how you feel right now: a little lost, a little encouraged, a little anxious, and a little enthusiastic. I felt the same when I finally accepted that my life would lead me in a completely unknown direction I never anticipated to follow.

If you can relate to these words, you’re welcome to linger for a while. I sincerely hope the following will take some pressure off your shoulders and allow you to welcome your fate readily. These words are for you, and today, we’ll explore thirteen pieces of advice on how to follow your path in life. 

1. Take the first step imperfectly and anxiously

You must be brave and a little crazy to allow yourself to live your life entirely according to your conditions. Yet, concurrently, no matter how strongly your intuition wants to push you in a specific direction, the pivot point for starting to take inspired actions according to your destiny must always come entirely from within you. 

Trust me: there will never be a perfect time when you will feel ready for the change that awaits you. Change is always unknown and perhaps frightening. So, you must be willing to take the first step on your path in life unready, imperfectly, and anxiously. 

Perfect comes from practice, yet in the beginning, you’ll most likely lack this kind of experience, which is natural. This is how any new beginning is originally designed. Therefore, it’s likely that anxiety is involved in the process since you yet lack the experiences of result and consequence. Hence, it’s likely that you’ll feel some form of discomfort, which is fine.

No matter how much time you dedicate to preparation or how well you structure your adventure, the feeling that you’re not ready for this will always remain. And the truth is, you’re most certainly not prepared for any of these changes, yet this is precisely where you should start your journey.

Following your path in life is not about feeling ready.

Following your path in life is not about feeling ready. It’s about deciding that you won’t allow yourself to wait any longer for anything you think you need to experience and instead start acting imperfectly. 

Still, starting a new adventure without exactly knowing where your path will eventually lead you is one of the most frightening moments in life. Therefore, let me tell you right now: This is part of the deal. 

Especially if you start a new project you’ve always felt drawn to, know there is no way to gather all the answers before you even begin to walk the path. This is not how this will work out. 

Although today’s life seems to offer all the answers through the Internet and social media, and of course, you can gather a lot of information before you even get into the experience itself, practice is what creates perfection and confidence.

Therefore, prepare yourself for unpleasant emotions like stress, anxiety, nervousness, uncertainty, shame, helplessness, and anger. Be prepared to take imperfect actions for a long time, as this is how you’ll outgrow your old anxious self. This is how you’ll become a new version of yourself, ready for a different experience. This is necessary to welcome the changes that await you as you follow your life’s path.

Allow yourself to gather your experiences.

It’s tempting to seek advice outside of yourself in the form of other people’s experiences – I, for my part, am always at the edge of losing myself in other people’s stories. But you’ll rarely find the raw and uncut versions of the people’s struggles at the beginning of their journeys. Very few souls want to be watched while struggling against themselves initially, while figuring out their path in life. 

Yet, when everything is sorted and figured out, those who seek answers usually get a softened and less emotional version of the original from those we admire. Therefore, even though you understandably want to gather the experiences of people in a similar field to the one you want to explore, always remember that comparing yourself to others is useless since your journey will be unique and tailored to your personality. 

Prepare yourself to leave behind your footprints on the virgin path no one else has ever walked before you by following your path in life.

2. Never talk about your dreams and visions

This is one of the most challenging lessons I have had to learn in life, and it most likely will be the same for you. 

The moment you go beyond your horizon and start dreaming about making the impossible in your life possible, the dreams you wish to fulfill only for the sake of experiencing them, you will very likely encounter criticism and voices that try to lessen your passion for your life’s choices. 

Talking about your dreams and visions with others before these dreams manifest themselves in your life will likely create conflicts. This is not about the others not trying their best to imagine the dreams playing rent-free in your mind. But people’s imagination only goes so far. You should always believe they try their best to support you, yet their best is not your best, and you will always remain your biggest supporter.

People’s horizons are not your horizon. 

What’s meant for them is not what’s meant for you. With that in mind, it can get challenging and complex for others to imagine happiness and contentment in the path you’re about to tread. They worry about you because they cannot imagine a world where your vision is something they would love to experience. 

Yet, that’s not a problem since they should live according to their dreams and visions, and you’re entitled to do the same. But please be aware that often, if a dream or a vision is too big or too fantastic, it’s hard for someone outside of you to follow your imagination of the wonders you can already envision, even before you see any material proof of this. 

Therefore, prepare yourself for people to criticize your dreams, diminish your visions, and try their best to spread concerns about your soon-to-be adventures. They don’t do this to hurt you but out of care for you to keep you “safe” in the sense they understand. And rightfully so, because not every path is meant for everyone. What could be devastating for someone could be fruitful for you.

Treat your dreams as the precious treasures they indeed are. Therefore, always choose wisely with whom you’d like to share your thoughts and dreams about your path in life. 

3. Do not take advice from people whose lives you don’t want to live 

With people spreading worry within you, you’ll likely have to face unasked advice about what you should do instead of following your path in life and how you should play small. The tricky aspect of this is that it can increase your unease; it barely does anything good for you.

Instead, this behavior of your loved ones and people you care about will likely discourage you from taking the necessary first steps. These are frightening on their own, without people bombarding you with advice packed with foreign emotions. 

Whenever you share your dreams and ask for opinions, be mindful of whose advice you want to hear. Remind yourself that it’s not the least helpful to get advice about life from people whose lives you do not want to experience yourself. 

Why is that? It’s because they can tell you nothing about the problems you’ll have to solve or the obstacles you’ll have to overcome, nothing about the happiness you’ll feel or the contentment you’ll experience while on your life’s path. They lack the experiences that could benefit you on your journey since they never walked in your or similar shoes. 

Therefore, I highly encourage you to be picky about the people you share your innermost with. Only take advice from those you would love to share their life experiences. These are the only people who could teach you something about your path. 

4. Trust the process

Soon, you’ll realize that practicing patience is one of the essential aspects of the adventure called life. There won’t be any visible results from one day to the next. Every unknown endeavor is like learning a new language. 

No matter how much energy and effort you put into learning the necessary vocabulary and grammar, it takes patience and persistence to see results eventually. And indeed, it won’t ever happen when you’d like to see some and are about to lose patience. 

The good news is that the more you practice walking along unknown paths, the more you choose the uncomfortable over the known, and the more you realize that it takes consistency from the beginning to achieve your goal of learning and experiencing something new and unknown, the more comfortable you’ll become walking your destined life path. The sooner you’ll see the results you wish for.

Along with taking the first steps imperfectly and anxiously, trust the process. The more consistent and persistent you are, the more frequently you can put your time, energy, and focus into your dreams, the sooner you’ll arrive at your destination. Take one step after the other. Keep going, no matter how wonky and unsteady you feel during this experience. You can do this!

It doesn’t matter how you proceed on your life’s path, whether fast and steady or slow and careful, but proceeding at all is what you should practice daily (with an emphasis on ‘daily’). 

This is how you follow your path in life. 

5. Show up for yourself daily

Following your path in life, you must be willing to do what it takes to succeed. And involved is here showing up for yourself over and over and over again. No matter if you feel motivated, no matter if you feel inspired, you must be willing to do what you need to do. 

Please remember that you do not have to enjoy yourself while on your destined path. You must do what is necessary to arrive at your preferred destination. This mainly involves discipline, overcoming your ego, and self-encouragement. And please remember that it’s natural and normal to feel something unpleasant while doing something uncomfortable. 

No one would do it instead of you.

No one will do it for you if you do not show up for yourself first. Always remember that. No matter your dream, you must be your biggest supporter and loudest voice of encouragement because nothing outside yourself is more powerful than your inner voice. 

One way to show up for yourself and practice consistency is to show gratitude for your hard work actively. Following your path in life is always hard work, but it’s honest work. And let me tell you, there is nothing more rewarding than showing up for yourself, overcoming your ego and concerns, training your discipline muscle, and being grateful for everything you do for yourself. 

No one else is willing to do it instead of you. No one would carry you along your path in life – this is your responsibility alone to fulfill. Therefore, if you can do this for yourself and show up every single day, this deserves your gratitude and appreciation.

Your dream must be important enough to start today. 

Showing up for yourself daily is about doing something for yourself and repeating it daily. Your dream must be important enough that you’re willing to start today. And please take this phrase literally. It’s way more important to incorporate a new routine by repeating a specific task daily than you might think. 

Often, we tend to postpone our dreams to another day or tomorrow. But tomorrow or any other day than today is in the future and, therefore, out of your reach to influence. Only today can you make things happen and manifest your dreams into reality. Only today can you start following your path in life. 

You can start with tiny steps, though. Even if it’s just a Google search or a daydream about how things could potentially change, baby steps are reasonable enough. It’s unimportant how much effort you put into your dream daily, but there must be some effort at least. 

6. Always climb your mountain entirely

While pursuing your journey towards fulfilling your dreams and following your path in life, it’ll be enormously tempting to turn around midway after facing obstacle after obstacle. There is no way around it, but following your life path means experiencing highs and confronting yourself with lows. Instead of getting overwhelmed with what’s in front of you, allow yourself to take breaks and look back at what you have already achieved. 

Allow yourself to celebrate your achievements with gratitude. 

Give yourself time to rest and reflect each day. You can only face the next challenging stage of your journey by discovering your personal equilibrium. I promise you that your path will be filled with exhausting lows and incredible highs. But you can only conquer the highs by enduring the lows.

You’ll never discover what lies beyond the valley if you give up.

If you quit because it seems too complex or challenging, remember you’ll never know what awaits you. Always walk until you reach the top of your mountain, until you reach your destination. Only by doing so will you see if this path is genuinely for you. If you quit midway, you’ll never know what’s in it for you behind the next hill. 

7. Never follow the easy path

As soon as you decide to follow the path in life that is precisely your destination, you’ll realize that there are two meanings behind the easy path. 

First, there is the meaning that you should never follow the most straightforward path in life, just because it’s the one with the least resistance, hence the one you feel the most comfortable with. 

What’s wrong with that path?

In principle, nothing. Do whatever you feel most drawn to. Yet, primarily, the easy path is most likely not the one you wish to follow whenever you allow yourself to imagine what your heart wants to know. Those afraid of the unknown and uncomfortable usually choose the easy path. This path often seems like the only possible option, the most logical and accepted option, since there is much already known involved. 

However, choosing this path, and you already know what path I’m talking about if you think about it precisely, hinders you from experiencing your evolution to the extent the universe intended for you. Ultimately, you’ll be stuck in a place you should have never been in the first place out of fear of the unknown and discomfort.

The easy path is meant for you.

Concurrently, the second meaning of the easy path is that you can only acknowledge whenever you choose the path you should follow in your life. Only then will you realize that even if your path in life may be uncomfortable and occasionally forces you to leave your comfort zone, it’s the path you feel this pressure to keep pursuing. Therefore, it feels easy and fluent, besides all the other emotions that emerge regularly, to take one step after the other.

Therefore, never follow the easy path because you wish to avoid facing your inner demons and overcoming discomfort. Confronting the unknown, pursuing change and newness, and leaving your comfort zone are part of the deal.

This is part of experiencing life. 

It was never about being comfortable at all times or never facing unpleasant emotions or situations. Life is about training your discipline and becoming more resilient. 

You do this by choosing the path that makes you feel something—the one that feels straightforward in its challenge and lets you believe in yourself. The one that makes you feel capable of overcoming the obstacles in front of you because you think you deserve to experience the results of your labor. 

Take the first step because it means something to you. Follow the path no one else has ever dared to tread because there is this feeling deep within you that you can do it even though there is not yet proof of your capability. Do it because you can trust your gut feeling. 

This is how you follow your path in life. 

8. Trust your gut feeling

If you truly wish to follow your life’s path, you should learn to ignore outside voices and start listening to your inner voice, trusting your gut feeling. 

How do you know which path to follow?

At some point in your life, you have to trust your intuition to guide you in the right direction. However, if you’re unfamiliar with listening to your inner voice, doing so can be a massive obstacle you must first overcome. 

Sometimes, it gets so crowded, chaotic, and loud in our minds that it’s nearly impossible to hear anything besides the tempest rampaging within us. If this feels relatable to you, know you’re not alone in this. Everyone is just trying their best to find their path in life, even the ones that seem to have it all figured out. 

If you wish to improve your relationship with yourself and hear your inner voice clearer and louder, I may have something for you. Over the last year, I created a mindfulness and gratitude journal (ad for my book):

The Be Gloriously You Journal

While it may not cure any problem you currently face, I’m convinced that being more mindful in each moment, practicing enhanced gratitude, and ultimately hearing your inner voice clearly can be very helpful. It all goes hand in hand, and in my experience, a wholesome approach serves me best—and maybe it does for you, too.

The journal I created for you (and me) can help you learn to trust your gut feeling more and more over time. It did it for me, so I’m convinced it could do the same for you. Although this journal is merely a tool for enhanced mindfulness and gratitude, I believe it’s only meant for those who are already willing to improve their relationship with themselves. 

Also, if you love to answer thoughtful questions and go into contemplation with yourself daily, you should try it out. Click here for more information.

To follow your path in life, you must trust your gut feeling. Please do whatever it takes for you to start listening to your inner voice. This will change everything.

9. Allow yourself to let go of control

This might be the most frightening advice of all. 

Following your path in life usually differs immensely from what most people experience. Yet, if following your life path means leaving the mainstream that seems to guide most, you must be willing to let go of control. Your mind can only control what it already knows. Controlling the unknown can be very frustrating and an endless endeavor, so let it go.

Control is when we try to influence future outcomes with our behavior. But what do you do with control if you don’t know what the future may bring? Our brains can only gather information about existing things, yet if you follow an unknown path, you’ll confront yourself with something new, which means it’s a new experience that does not yet exist for you until this moment. 

Your life path will work out just fine.

Therefore, it’s essential to trust your gut feeling and be willing to let go of control. You cannot control what is outside of you; you can only control yourself and the reactions you influence. Remember that if you wish to live an authentic life rather than a copy of someone else’s, there is no need to control everything. It’s okay and healthy to let go of control while pursuing a new and unknown path. If you practice patience and trust in yourself, your life path will work out just fine. 

Following your path in life is scary, and often, it’s uncomfortable. Still, whenever you reap the first fruits of your labor, nothing is more rewarding than following the path meant for you. And as soon as you let go of the illusion of control, you’ll realize that you never needed it in the first place and that it was just an act of trying to stay on dry land instead of diving heads first into the unknown waters. 

10. Believe in something higher than yourself

This advice may be challenging for some since many prejudices mark the perception of a higher force. Still, implementing it can help you release stress while pursuing your destined path in life. 

Maybe this approach can help you understand the topic from another perspective:

I once read (actually, I have read it many times already) a book by Lola Jones called Things Are Going Great in My Absence. The main lesson from this book is to have faith, especially in a higher power. At any moment, there exists a wiser version of yourself than the one you are today. Today, you are much wiser than your past self from one, five or ten years ago, or even yesterday. 

At all times, you’re guided.

If you can believe in this wiser version of yourself—the one version of you who already has the answers to your present dilemma and is willing to share this wisdom by guiding your current self through the rough terrain—you can release a lot of pressure. 

This helps me live my life more contently and with enhanced gratitude daily. It makes sense, at least for me, that my past self took the path through life in the exact way she did because of my present self. There is a connection between the person I was and the person I am. 

Since I figured this out, I can trust that the path I choose today is because of the glorious version of myself that is waiting for me in the future to meet my current self. To ensure this meeting is guaranteed, my higher self is protecting and guiding me so that this future version of myself can come into existence. 

Have faith in yourself.

If you’re uncomfortable believing in God, spirit, the universe, or the source, perhaps you could have faith in yourself—more precisely, your higher (future) self, who already knows what your path in life may offer you today. 

You may even believe that this wiser version of yourself will guide you along your path. Then, the two versions of yourself will eventually meet and merge, making following your path in life more peaceful and manageable.

11. Be prepared to fail 

It’s straightforward to reach the same destination as so many before you if you follow the main path most walk in life. Of course, since you can rely on many real-life examples of how it’s done correctly.

Yet, if you choose to walk along the path destined solely for you, there are no imprinted footsteps you can step into, no manifested track you can follow, and no hints about where the journey could lead you. Then, you create a new path that no one else has walked before.

You’re the creator of your life’s path.

As you are the creator of your path in life, it’s easy to fail and turn in the wrong direction. Since there is no guaranteed plan beforehand of how your creation will work out for you eventually. This is the price you pay for following your destined path. But it’s not a price you should pay with regret since these failures guarantee your personal development will last. 

Often, the most incredible wisdom can only be reaped from the most significant failures in life.

If you are content to fail and make mistakes, you will gain something valuable you could never have experienced by following the standard path. Failures are a blessing as they teach you about your potential and capabilities. Often, they reveal an alternative reality you would have never discovered if not for the failures that led you exactly where you never wanted to end up. 

Only by experiencing failures along your life’s path will you be able to gain resistance, train your discipline muscle, and become a solution-oriented person. These are all qualities that guarantee you a successful life of a different kind. But don’t be mistaken: the failures you’ll have to endure in your life will be hurtful and accompanied by big emotions. Yet, they will provide the perfect circumstances for your higher good. 

Enjoy the view while on the go.

Also, by following your path in life, you’re forced to slow down while walking through the wilderness of life. You’ll be gently forced to enjoy the view while walking and stay open-minded when it’s time to take your next turn, leading you to your new lesson, whether a failure or a success. Yet, the slower your life is, the more you’ll be aware and mindful of your human experience, which in itself can be of wholesome value. 

Living life is not a race. The first ones to arrive at our all final destination do not win anything compared to the ones who take their time and allow themselves to enjoy the view while on the go.

12. Stay open for a new direction

Sometimes, what we envision our lives to be is not exactly what we’re supposed to learn. Therefore, the universe sometimes provides us with unexpected adventures. This then guides us towards the perfect circumstances that lets us become gloriously her. 

Whenever you decide to follow your path in life, be prepared to stay open for a new direction while on the go. This advice goes hand in hand with no. 10, since it demands a belief in something higher than yourself to let go of the attitude of being right no matter what. 

We are all students of life.

What I mean by that is that a counterproductive attitude is inappropriate when pursuing one’s life path. It’s best to adopt the mindset of a student of life since this is what we all are at our core. 

Life often proves that there is no right or wrong. What we initially assume to be the perfect path can quickly turn out to be unsuitable. Ultimately, the unexpected can take over its place and teach us something beyond our wildest imagination.

Therefore, allow yourself to turn directions, even though a turn was never part of your initial plan. Plans are great, so you know where to start, but flexibility is crucial likewise. Only this adaptability to specific situations will allow you to live as you intended.

Most likely, what you first envisioned your path to look and feel like way too many times will evolve into something entirely different. Not worse than your initial plan, yet distinct and more tailored toward your higher needs. Let it flow – this is how you follow your path in life. 

13. Get into the right state of mind for a new adventure

Any new adventure usually starts similarly with excitement, joy, and anticipation until you are genuinely on the path and invested in your journey. Then, what stays with you along the unknown is a desire to turn around instead of getting uncomfortable. Facing the comfort of the known is way too tempting while exploring something new. 

Your decision to follow your path in life will be a choice with pride in choosing your journey instead of following the crowd. Yet, it will be a whirlwind of emotions and a true rollercoaster of ups and downs.

Never wait for motivation to appear.

You may be tempted to wait for your motivation to appear to get things rolling. But hear me out: motivation does exist, yet it’s never part of the beginning of your journey. 

Let me dispel this illusion: if you wait for motivation to magically appear on the horizon, like the knight in shining armor who leads you into inspired action, you’ll likely be disappointed and wait forever. Motivation does not work like this. Whatever path you choose, you must be willing to walk it unmotivated, accompanied only by your strength, discipline, and willpower. 

Consistency is the key to success. 

Hear me loud and clear with this one: Consistency is the one thing you must train every day to succeed in following your path in life. 

No matter how small you progress, no matter how you proceed, proceeding at all daily is the most crucial advice you could take with you today. It’s okay if one day, one week, or one month provides you with only 1% of your progress, but proceeding at all is what following your path in life is merely all about. 

And there will come times that this is the last thing you want to do. Yet, you have to carry yourself and all the parts of you that refuse to take any step further, one step further. This is where growth is happening, where you start to be the creator of your life. 

Following your path in life is the biggest reward. 

Please also hear what this implies: Even though following your path in life will be the hardest thing you could ever do, it’s the best and most rewarding thing ever. As soon as you start your adventure, as soon as you get comfortable with the discomfort, you’ll realize that even though you experience challenging times, you wouldn’t want it any other way. 

This is how you follow your path in life.

Your path in life will guide you toward the most beautiful experiences, blessings, and lessons, which are equally stunning in their complexity. You will learn new things, experience intense emotions, and be challenged by your surroundings. Most importantly, your journey called life will have no ending; it will be forever ongoing. 

It’s your decision alone what you do with your time on this earth. While making the right choice can be difficult sometimes, I sincerely hope today’s blog post will make things easier for you. Please remember that it’s the right choice if it feels good and you can resonate profoundly. 

I was often, and still am, highly confused by everything this world offers and demands. However, following the pieces of advice above makes it more manageable for me and perhaps for you, too. 

No matter where your path leads or what you may experience in your existence, the highs and lows, I hope you take the opportunity today to experience all of the miracle called life.

Until next time, 

Keep evolving into the most glorious version of yourself!