Follow Your Dread

How will you keep your life out of the shit?

By what guiding light will you choose your path?

How will you conduct yourself to ensure you do not, at your life’s end, sink to your knees in regret at the road not taken, the fence unswung for?

Every day presents you with a thousand paths.

If you do not set yourself some standard to follow, you will be lost.

So what will be your north star?

What guide will you follow?

Most men only say they are following their heart.

What they really follow is their fat ass.

In other words, they take whatever path provides the least strain, the most respite, the softest seat.

But what about the man who truly does “follow his heart?”

Is that not a fitting guide, the ultimate north star?

In truth, the heart shares more with the ass than you would think.

The heart, like the ass, aspires chiefly to comfort.

Whereas the ass seeks comfort of the body and appetites, the heart seeks comfort of the mind and soul.

Both the ass and the heart are overly-occupied with trifles–with fleeting, shallow pleasures.

The ass and the heart love paths that are straight and short. Free of roots and rocks, with lots of benches and birdsong.

What they do NOT love are paths steep and overgrown. Paths with exposure and missing guard rails and “bear-recently-sighted-in-area” signs.

Paths with unproven markets, uncertain outcomes, and high likelihood of failure.

The ass will never take you even close to one of these.

The heart will walk to the trail-head, cautiously sniffing the wind. It will catch a faint scent… a hint of far off reward that will stir and billow…

…but then the trace will be lost, replaced by the pungent smell of blood, sweat, and dog shit.

What the ass and the heart fail to see is that these lonely, fearsome paths lead to levels of contentment and fulfillment that only a small number of men will ever know.

So don’t follow your ass.

Don’t follow your heart.

Follow your dread.