Tolu Falode: Embrace Your Journey

When you are on the road to writing your own story, there are a lot of ditches, distractions, decisions and delays along the way; just as there is a sprinkle of laughter, a shower of joy, a beacon of hope and sparks of a smile that decorate your steps to self fulfillment.

I have learned it is best to embrace these moments-cry through the pain, release the guilt, embrace the journey. It is ultimately the only one you will make on this Earth and it is dented with your footsteps, scented with your soul and buried within your body-so release it!

How do you embrace your journey?

Everyone has a different story to tell and a unique means of sharing their script. These are some tips I believe will help you along your own story that speaks with your unique voice and your own breath of truth.

A lot of people move along in life living on the edge of purpose – watching friends and family develop, and enjoying the satisfaction of a drop that spills from their journey. Well, it is time to embrace your own. You have a voice; use it.

Your identity is essentially who you are as a person-it is an echo of your thoughts embodied in your steps, your laughter, your tears – it is your truth and only you can tell it. Your identity is not wrapped up in your mother, your father, your siblings, your friends, your spouse-your identity is wrapped up deep inside your soul. It is a combination of your past mistakes, your present lessons, and your future hopes – spilled fearlessly unto the pages of your journey as you discover the trial towards living your truth.

It evolves from your growth
Once you allow yourself to live your truth by speaking from your journey’s discovery, through sharing your story of the past pains, the present hurts, the laughter and bliss contained in your riverbank of memory, once you allow yourself to embrace your voice, you have given yourself permission to grow.

Growth produces progress
As you move along this journey, voicing your truth, sharing your thoughts, describing your discoveries, you have begun embracing your journey. How? Well because by giving a voice to your thoughts and giving your conscience permission to speak, you have allowed yourself to walk the path to your future. You have allowed your steps to move forward and to stop pushing backwards. You have essentially given your heart permission to explode into progress as it speaks and shares and discovers and decides to live in the path of destiny. The path contained in the journey.

Your journey starts when you move forward
It is important to realize that your journey is not bound in the realm of time. In other words, it is not specific to your gender, bound by your age, defined by your character. Rather, these are all essential ingredients that sprinkle the unique taste of your own meal to society. These are all parts of your own pottery presented to the world to absorb, and aid in influencing eyes that see, and ears that hear, and hearts that move in response to your decision to walk forward into the journey that is ultimately your own.

No one can walk out this journey for you
This is important. Once you start to speak and share and live in your path-you need to remember it is your own. It is only your steps that will be able to determine the next move forward, it is only your thoughts that can house the density and desires contained in your dreams and push them into reality, it is only your voice that can enable your faith to speak. No one else can determine these steps for you-no one else can predict the steps that will release progress or bring about failure. These are all important parts of the story that you have been gifted to write. They are all markers that meet you on the journey. And you need the faith to accept them-the faith to be able to speak your truth above the voice of your parents, your spouse, your siblings, your friends-the faith to be able to defend your desires from their love that could ultimately shield you from the path of success.

Don’t get me wrong: They can and should contribute.

Though they do not walk this path for you, they can speak their truth into your own situation and enable you to make wiser choices as you move along with your thoughts more confidently and share your story more subtly.

But ultimately, this is your own story; you have the pen-only you can utter the words, so start writing.

You will discover different sides of yourself along the way
As you move along this journey, and past the tests of defeating fear and walking in fiery faith, you will grow. Parts of yourself that where once weak will be built into strength, your voice of uncertainty will find confidence, your heart will grow as it faces pressure and praise, your gait will become more determined, your footsteps more sure, as the journey moves from blurriness to clarity because it has embraced your response: your response of faith, truth and trust.

This is when the two become one-you are no longer walking apart from the journey, you are walking in it: this is when the journey embraces you.

Photo Credit: Dreamstime | Sam74100