Observing the human race is one of my favourite things to do. Our ‘life’ as we call it, is so mesmerisingly complex and dynamic and it is truly what differentiates us from the rest of the inhabitants of the planet. While the rest of the biosphere is busy eating or getting eaten, we humans have a lot more going on.

We are all, right from our childhood, on the path to ‘somewhere’. No, not necessarily a physical location but an abstract one. The uniqueness of each individual and hence our dreams and aspiration, coupled with the societal expectations, unwittingly put us all onto the path of life, like we are just supposed to know what to do and where to go.

Even though the world has mostly settled into a system where you get your education and then get a job or pursue your own ventures, life is still vague and visibility of the future is hazy at best and there are endless directions you could head in.

Add to that the countless variables that can totally knock you off of your path and onto another and it becomes clearer why so many people are feeling lost and directionless.

Feeling Lost Is The Worst Feeling Ever

As I said, even with the same dreams you have, there are so many ways to get there and unfortunately, a hundred more for each that will serve as a roadblock. Since you know never know which path is the right one, it is easy to get lost in the maze of life.

Also, even if you are on the right path, there can be a million obstacles that can come in your way. Some, you will overcome easily but some can be so tough that they can force you to rethink things and then you start questioning your dreams altogether.

This feeling of being lost and not knowing what to do and where to go is one of the hardest times in any person’s life. One of the reasons is for this is that we humans are hardwired, from an evolutionary perspective to want to know things and have as much information and planning as possible for a clear direction. Strange circumstances scare us.

Trust me when I say, I have had these moments myself. Some where not too big a deal but twice in my life, I was left completely directionless and without a clue as to what would be of me even though I had given it my all.

Losing Your Way Could Lead You To The Right One

Yes, you could, out of pure luck, find the right path, just like that! But, that is so rare because if there are a hundred wrong ones, there is only one right one but it still could very well happen.

What I have seen though, and have personally experienced myself, is that getting lost forces you to go back to the drawing board, because one thing is for certain. Life must go on!

Getting lost could actually force you to think out of the box and try out completely strange lands for yourself which you could never even have imagined of doing before. But since you would have nothing to lose, that fear would be extinguished and that might just work for you.

I had been travelling on a completely different path some 5 years ago and getting lost helped me find a different one, a totally different one and then I got lost again and it helped my find a yet another completely different one and finally, it seems like I have found the right one. The only thing that kept me going was this inner flame that wanted to keep burning.