The Best Path In Life is Rarely the Straightest

How to find the right path for you and accept the unexpected journeys life will bring

We’d stopped to fill our water bottles and check our navigation when I knew this wasn’t going to end well. We were a group of eighteen on a ten-day Outward Bound expedition. It was day four and time for the group of fifteen-year-olds to set the path.

Ruling a straight line from Point A to Point B is rarely a good idea.

I’d walked this territory a few times before and knew the terrain well. The mountains were densely vegetated. But while the creek was meandering and double the distance, it was also flat, shaded, and would lead us directly into camp. Instead, the group’s leaders decided to rule a straight line from Point A to Point B, wanting to traverse several impenetrable ridgelines.

I knew it was a bad idea from the moment they mentioned the plan. Because walking at the peak of the day in the summer heat did not appeal, I attempted to drop hints to review the navigation plan. The headstrong boys who were trying to prove themselves were not open to such hints. I even encouraged some of the team members to check in with them and review the plan.

My not-so-subtle nudges were ignored without a moment of consideration. So here we were, embarking on a hike into territory that possibly few people had ever walked.

The initial climb was steep and unforgiving

No one wanted to be there and the quieter students at the back of the group started to grumble. Expectedly and rightfully, they were beginning to question the directions from their leaders.

We made it to the top of the horseshoe-shaped ridge. It was important to exit the other side of the ridge at the right time or we’d otherwise find ourselves somewhere we didn’t intend to be.

Nature, like life, isn’t constructed with straight lines and grids. Its patterns and shapes have been formed over millennia and reflect the deeper archetypal and slow-moving truths of life more than the contemporary need to find the quickest way.

Yet even with my experience, I failed to see what was really happening at that moment. My own need for finding the easy way had overshadowed what was to come next.

What you discover in adversity

Getting out of camp late that day didn’t help our cause. It meant fewer daylight hours to walk and therefore make our destination. When we were still on the ridge in the late afternoon with seemingly no idea where we were, it looked like we’d not make it to our destination.

It was eventually time to call it a day and set up camp. Until now, we’d mostly been camping in open bushland, allowing us to spread out. Because of how dense the vegetation was, we were forced to all lay our sleeping bags very close to each other. A number of us chose to sleep under the stars to avoid the rockiest parts of the ground.

Being lost can be unnerving for novice explorers. For the perhaps the first time in some of their lives, they were trusted to make a decision that had very real repurcussions. The Outward Bound teachable moment was known as action-consequence. They got to experience the fruits of their collective decisions that day.

It was not safe to light a fire, so we huddled around in the cool night air with our body warmth and laughter. One quiet student, Martin, who had lagged toward the back had suddenly emerged as the group’s trickster. He started to playfully reenact the day with humorous exaggeration until the group was laughing and seeing how they created the discomfort of where we were.

When the path leads back to itself

We broke camp the following morning in record speed. Perhaps the rocky ground drove home the lesson overnight. We continued along the ridge for a while and descended. The navigators thought we would drop into the creek close to the destination intended for the previous day.

Instead, when we reach the creek we found ourselves somewhere very familiar. We were back where we started. Life took us for a literal loop. The sudden realization that we’d lost time and ground was disheartening. And now we had to make up two days' worth of hiking. But the lesson wasn’t lost on them.

The best path in life is rarely the straightest

Nature is no different from life. It is messy, complicated, and beautiful all at once. There are parts that have been trodden widely, and other parts that have yet to be explored. But there are never straight lines. That is a human-created ideal that is yet to prove itself.

Seemingly, everywhere you look there’s someone selling the false promise that they can take you from zero to hero by the most direct route. Create unspeakable wealth in two days, write a book in thirty, transform your body in six weeks. They are selling the straight line from Point A to Point B that they once took.

The reality is though — it wasn’t a straight-forward path when they took it. It was only in hindsight they repackage the story, deleting the inconvenient and uncomfortable truths to make it easier for you. Be wary when someone tries to sell you a straight line.

The inner landscape of each person is different. We each have our own unique destinations, as well as supporting and sabotaging patterns. This is why people leave these courses and workshops and end up back where they began. Why? Because inner transformation isn’t a straight line. What might work for me won’t necessarily work for you.

In Outward Bound the landscape was the teacher. The philosophy went: Let the mountains speak for themselves. In this story, it was the mountains that brought the lesson, not me as the guide. It’s one thing to let the mountains speak though, and another to know how to listen to their messages. To learn to speak the language of the mountains.

There are as many ways to a destination as there are people, and each path will provide the right lessons. There are times you’ll want to follow the creek, and other times you’ll experience the joys and frustrations of getting lost in the thick forest.