You may be familiar with the quote: two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by. It’s become an iconic guidance for people considering which path to take in their life when they’re at a juncture.
The expression comes from a poem by Robert Frost called The Road Not Taken. However, Robert Frost did not write the poem with this underlying intent.
This poem was actually a letter to his friend who was chronically indecisive. He wrote the poem in jest because the friend would always choose a path to walk down and then lament that he hadn’t chosen the other.
I actually like this underlying meaning more. You can go round-and-round with a decision, and never really get anywhere. And then when you choose a path, how often do you feel like you’ve made the wrong decision?
The key is to do all you can with the decisions you make. As I shared in the base and the summit, you can only choose the path before you that you think is best, and then keep making your way up the mountain in stages.
I recommend reading the full poem from both perspectives – one for guidance, the other for indecision.
This post is credited to Judi
The Road Not Taken BY ROBERT FROST Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
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