# Walk Your Path.  Leave A Trail.

Source: https://geoffblades.com/walk-your-path-leave-a-trail/
Published: 2010-08-24
Updated: 2019-10-11
Author: Geoff

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> Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail – Emerson

Talking about [HYPNOSIS](http://www.geoffblades.com/main/2010/8/16/hypnosis-read-this-read-for-obama.html) has some of my friends questioning my **sanity**.  Yesterday a friend of mine asked if I really “believed in it.”  It led me to ponder **h****ow far off the beaten path I sometimes stray**.  It led me to ponder the definition of “beaten.”  It led me to realize that there’s **no such thing as A beaten path, just THE path that each of us beat**.

Odd paths to some – hypnosis, healing, [the Singularity](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Singularity_Is_Near), [MMA](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_martial_arts), etc. – these paths I’ve experienced through my interests are THE paths of others.  I’ve learned more about myself from walking other’s paths than from most other experiences and the hundreds of self-help books I’ve read.  Training with **pro fighters** taught me about toughness, **healing** taught me about my minds, and **learning hypnosis taught me reality, that there is no****one**.  Not all of us want to shift our reality, to walk other paths.  Here are some of the reasons I DO.

- MIX IT UP:  There is no perspective without contrast.  I call this mix it up – hobbies, reading, people, travel, whatever.  Our definition of reality is experiential. **Change experience, change reality**

- WHAT ARE WE LEARNING?:  We rarely learn just what we intended.  As Dale Carnegie once noted, “he didn’t teach people to speak, rather he taught them to **conquer their fears and develop courage**”

- LEARN, SKILLS:  We are built to learn.  Learning new skills is one of our most engaging life experiences. It also equips us with new skills.  My friends laugh now but when the **machines attack they will call me**

- PEOPLE, PLACES:  New interests expose us to different types of people and environments.  We learn and grow and adapting to **different people** **and environments** is an important life skill

- BEING BAD:  It’s important to do new things, to get comfortable with having to learn from scratch, from **being bad at something**.  It builds character

- **YOUR PATH, THE TRAIL: ** There is no path, only YOUR PATH.  But it’s not the path that matters.  It’s the trail