"The Road Not Taken" is probably Robert Frost's most well-known poem. Faced with a fork on the road, the speaker must choose between two roads and decides to take the road "less traveled". This will have a profound consequence on the future and will make all the difference.
But most of the time we don´t see the fork on our road of life. We are traveling eyes closed on a road that we know too well, within our known comfort zone, although it may not be very comfortable at all. It may be a road full of issues, debt, health difficulties, work problems, stress, sadness, unfulfillment, etc. We are so concentrated looking down, trying not to stumble on our daily challenges, that we are not able to see our own fork on the road of life.
Open your eyes. Just one bit. Search for your new road. Look down that road. You may be able to see something you like. You can be sure, this new road will take you out of your comfort zone. But remember, staying on the road you have been walking on for years has gotten you where you are today.
Getting out of your comfort zone is obviously uncomfortable. It demands you to change, to grow, to experience new and challenging realities, strange but fascinating.
Would improving your quality of life while at the same time saving money be of any help to your present situation? This is possible by living (and working, if needed) in places around the world where the cost of living is incredibly low.
Would your quality of life improve with a milder climate, healthier food, fresh air, accessibility to good healthcare, spectacular scenery, a community of friendly people, new friends, and fascinating new cultures?
Sounds tempting, I know. But most people won´t take that first step of moving away from their present lifestyle, even if they are unhappy with it. Even if maintaining it is beyond their means. Preferring what they are used to over anything new, unfamiliar, even adventurous, is human nature.
But for those who do want (or need) to move out of their comfort zone and try something new and exciting, I'll let you know that some things won't go the way you anticipate. You'll make some mistakes, you´ll have some regrets. Life isn´t perfect.
But I can assure you that, years down your new life road, everything fascinating, fulfilling and new about it will by far outweigh the mistakes and regrets. And you´ll be happy to have walked along your Road (almost) 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.

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