The Road Not Taken

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.
~ Robert Frost

This is one of my favorite poems from my very early years. In my life I have also tended to take the road less traveled. It is interesting, and scary. I made a decision recently that is taking me in a different, perhaps more focused direction. I have been trying to write a book on decision making for the past couple of years. I had a lovely outline, and was several chapters into it.

I kept going back, changing things, trying to define what is missing. I had lots of research invested into it, and plenty of hard core logic within my chapters. And … it was boring as all get out! I truly wanted to help people define how to make the best decisions in their lives, and I was getting lost in the process.

My “Aha!” moment was when I realized that instead of the process of decision making, I should focus on the process of making choices. To me this broadened the playing field, and made the book much more interesting. Decisions are conclusions that we come to after research and deliberation. While making choices does involve a level of decision making, to me it shows more heart, more caring.

Choices are my road less traveled.