Trust your instinct

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Don’t focus on the directions of others

People that have experience and achieved certain goals will give you plenty of directions. While they may be helpfull it could also hinder your progress. Experience can provide a proven track record, but maybe it’s unrelated to your goals.

Without knowing a certain end goal you might feel like you should perform certain activities. For example while learning a certain skill you notice that you like a certain foreign language. While at this point there is no visual benefit to learning the language if you are interested and motivated you  might as well spend some time learning it. You never know when that newly learned language will help you and improve your other skills in the future. Sometimes it’s better to start on a journey without knowing what you desire to accomplish with it.

Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley. -Theodore Roethke

When you are taking steps towards an unknown goal you will be motivated without knowing what it will bring you. After spending a certain amount of time honing the skill you will start to see a path to move forward on. When you continue on the path at some point you will see the path towards a goal showing up. Instead of having to continue moving blindly you will start seeing the benefits and the goal that you can strive for. At this point you will be so motivated that there is no option to abondon the path you have followed for such a long time.

An example to explain this abstract concept. When I was younger there were plenty of children playing sports or scouts all doing something physical, having some actions. Instead of joining them learning English was my goal, what the goal was for it was still unclear. However there could be some nice benefits in the end. After many years it brought me writing and the goal hasn’t stopped. This is only to show you don’t have to know what you are striving for, as long as you are motivated and you remain motivated you will not give up. So at one point you will find a goal to aim for to strengthen your motivation. Following what your instinct tells you to start and don’t give up.