Lost

 

Do you believe a person is where he/she is because that’s where that person wants to be? This is a general belief among many because whether you agree with it or not, a person is the sum of his/her choices. 

But consider this...

A few years ago, my mother moved to the Texas Hill country and the first time I went to see her in that part of the country, being neither familiar with the territory nor having a map, (this was before the days of Google maps) I couldn’t find her house. Being thoroughly lost, I went into a local gas station and asked the attendant if he knew how to get to Boerne, Texas and he was happy to oblige. I got back into the car setting out with confidence knowing, this time, I would get to Boerne.

Fifteen minutes later, after following his instructions, I was further away from my desired destination than I was before I asked him. I was traveling down a dark, isolated, two-lane highway at night and I had visions of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre flashing through my mind. I was in a place I didn’t want to be not because I wanted to be there, but rather, 

I was given the wrong directions...

There is another story about a salesman who was assigned by his territory manager to attend a seminar in Dallas at the convention center where the event was being held. His boss gave him handwritten directions on how to get from Houston to Dallas and how to find the arena once he was in the city. The salesman followed the directions explicitly, but he could not find the convention center.

He called his boss back home to tell inform of the situation and he was told...

 "You're not working hard enough"

So the salesman really concentrated, drove faster and with more determination. Still, he couldn’t find the Dallas Convention Center. Again, he called his boss in Houston to apprise him of the situation. “You need to quit being so negative”, he was told. 

"Think more positive and you can find it..."

So, the salesman began saying to himself “Be positive. I’m a positive person. I’m thinking positive.” But still, as hard as he worked and as positive as thought he could not find it.

Being thoroughly frustrated with the situation, he finally decided to pull into a convenience store to ask for directions to the Dallas Convention Center and handing the helpful young man his handwritten map the clerk said, “No wonder you can’t find the Dallas Convention Center. This is a map of Fort Worth!”. The salesman’s boss had given him the wrong directions.

Is the map we’re following the right map? Are the guidelines we’ve been given leading us in the wrong direction? Are we listening to the wrong voices? If so, maybe we’re where we are not because we want to be there, but because we’ve been given the wrong instructions.

Maybe some of us been programmed by a belief system, a mindset or circumstances from an early age that may have worked for some who are content with their lot but not for everyone who wants something different than what we've been given, with different objectives, different tendencies, a different purpose, different interests and talents.