I was watching a bird fly across the sky yesterday. He was stretching his wings wide, moving across the strong wind current that is created in the apex of where Manhattan, Queens and The Bronx all converge and the East river begins it's hectic current along the banks of Spanish Harlem and Western Queens. I felt his struggle. He need to get somewhere. His lonliness of no companions alongside to guide him or take the weight of the wind off of his feathers. But in my feeling I knew not what the origin of his struggle was. Was this bird taking flight away? On the beginning of his new journey. In that state of anxiety and determination that accompanies one when they know they have both moved onto an unknown path but with all their essense know that this unknown route is the most correct thing they have done in a long time. Or was he struggling to find his way back? Find his family, his village, his home. Was the intensity in his winged stroke not of determination but of desperation? Was his heart that beat so strongly that I felt it on the ground underneath him anxious for he understood how wrong his previous decisions were?
As I laid my head back listening to the sounds of intense dripping music I realized how similiar these feelings and routes were. How beautiful and desperate both routes were. That what I was conecting with was this bird's knowledge. His understanding of his next step. He knew where to go from here. He may have been on the right track last night or last week or he may have been on the wrong, but there was no mistaking that knowledge, the realization, the confidence in him that where he was going now was the correct route. And I became so intensely aware of how little strangers and friends really know where you are headed.
So much of success is dependent on others around us. We may carry our own lives but the people around us help in so many little ways each day. When you personify success, when you convince the people around you that you have taken that less travelled path on purpose, they will follow you. They will believe in your intensity and boost you up every boulder. They will carry your pack and splint your leg after you fall. It is the impression of the people around you that makes the difference. If they believe in you, you can be successful. Yes, people are sheep, but it's not that they desire to be eaten by the wolves, but they want a shepherd to guide them. So as you make decisions in life, make ones that exude confidence. Live life as if you know that what comes next is correct. We all change our minds at times, but it doesn't mean you have to go backwards. You just have to change directions. Live life with purpose and awareness of your success that is ahead of you. That is what will bring you success and happiness.