The Path That Changes You: A Journey of Self-Discovery

For me, life has always been about change and the feeling of being different. I've never taken the straight path and often suspected that I could only progress by taking detours. I always had to take new steps in new directions because the well-trodden paths didn't feel right to me. But that's the only way I've been able to keep moving forward, taking new steps in new directions, and ultimately become who I am today. But those were incredibly rocky paths and many obstacles I had to overcome, which was often incredibly exhausting and arduous.

I tried to follow a single rule: accept the past, understand the present from it, and then be able to shape the future. Accepting the past was the hardest step for me. Because not everything I did was successful, and when we fail, we often look for someone to blame—ourselves and others. But what is blame important for?

Things happened, dreams were shattered, life took a different turn, and often we don't know why. But when we remember our own responsibility, the appropriate answers emerge. Even if I didn't always want to admit them. Decisions were made to be active or passive, and new outcomes followed. So everything had a reason when you consider yourself in the respective situation. Empathize with it. That's how "Why?" becomes "Because!"

Life has evolved, goals have been achieved or not, dreams have been nurtured or not, desires have changed or not. My desires have adapted; depending on life's circumstances, some have disappeared, others have been fulfilled, and new dreams and desires have emerged.

My goals have changed, becoming smaller and more realistic, always with the option to adjust them if necessary. My dreams? Sure, some burst like soap bubbles, and each one hurt terribly, but the world kept turning, and I went with it. Clinging to them became pointless because my life simply unfolded differently. For reasons that are largely my own. Because I chose this path. Therefore, I understand my dreams as an idea of ​​shaping my life with achievable desires.

Understanding my responsibility for my past helps me to perceive and understand my present more consciously, to truly comprehend it. I constantly find myself in new situations that demand new decisions, and each new decision will lead me down a new path.

"When you walk a path, you change. When you change, you walk a new path!"

And I know from experience that every new step brings new uncertainties. So what? If everything were fine as it is, I wouldn't have to make any new decisions. And with these decisions, there's no right or wrong, good or bad . Because I'll only find out what happens later, and then I can look back at it to understand it again, but I'll only be able to change it by making a new decision.

This is life!

Even though I've learned from my experiences, I will still sometimes make "wrong" decisions in hindsight (or sometimes even knowingly beforehand). Reason isn't always the best guide. Sometimes emotions take over and reason goes on vacation. Then we do something we know perfectly well isn't necessarily wise, and yet we consciously choose to do it anyway.

Every decision made today has its reasons, period!

With these decisions, we can shape our future, even if influenced by other people or circumstances—but never dependent on or dependent on them. It is our decisions that will define our tomorrow and thus our lives. We should keep this in mind even when we are forced to make a decision through no fault of our own. For every door that closes, at least two more open. And we alone decide when we want to go through which door. Our thoughts determine what we feel, and what we feel shapes our behavior. Thus, thinking is the gateway to our feelings, and our feelings are the gateway to our actions.

Other people or unfortunate circumstances may seem to have caused the pain we feel in times of crisis or conflict, but we alone have control over whether we allow the pain to control us and our actions. We are responsible for ourselves. This means taking responsibility for our feelings, however tempting it may be to blame others. The blame of others never arises without our own contribution.

Only when I understood this could I see why I kept repeating the same dramas. What my part in them was. Where the root causes lay buried. And most importantly: how I could break this cycle. Suddenly, change and a new beginning were possible.