“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The voyage to greatness and vision fulfillment is always made on a narrow and high road.

Few are the people that traverse this road; hence it takes sheer determination, passion, and understanding of one’s destination to keeping on travelling forward.

We were all created to attain greatness through the maximization of an idea, innovation, creativity, specialized knowledge, or a talent tailored peculiarly to our gifts and natural endowments in a precise department of human endeavor.  Realizing this prominence requires creating our own path, blazing our own trails, being an original in life as well as being comfortable taking the high road regardless. “I'm going to take the high road because the low road is so crowded,” said actress and activist, Mia Farrow.

Oftentimes, getting to the land of your dreams requires you walking as a lone-ranger in your belief, passion, and resolve. Do not expect a crowd on the journey to vision fulfillment ; neither should you expect a consensus or endorsement from every member of your family, close friends, and love ones before you start the voyage to your dreamland.

American poet, Robert Lee Frost in his poem, The Road Not Taken, wrote: “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.”

Similarly, one person who took the road less traveled and made the difference in history, is Rosa Parks.

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African American civil rights activist and seamstress who confronted the status quo by her refusal to obey a bus driver’s demand to relinquish her seat to a white man, though the City of Montgomery had passed a city ordinance for the purpose of segregating passengers by race. Bus conductors had been given the power to assign segregate seats to people of the black race.

Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat to a white man, and her subsequent arrest and trial for this act of civil disobedience triggered the Montgomery Bus Boycott, one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation in history. Her role in American history earned her an iconic status in American culture, and her actions have left an enduring legacy for civil rights movements around the world.

As a child, Rosa became aware of the segregation which was deeply embedded in Alabama. She experienced deep rooted racism, and became aware of the different opportunities faced by white and black children. She also recalls seeing a Ku Klux Klan march go past her house – where her father stood outside with a shotgun.

In a 1992 interview with National Public Radio’s Lynn Neary, Rosa recalled:“ I did not want to be mistreated, I did not want to be deprived of a seat that I had paid for. It was just time… there was opportunity for me to take a stand to express the way I felt about being treated in that manner. I had not planned to get arrested. I had plenty to do without having to end up in jail. But when I had to face that decision, I didn’t hesitate to do so because I felt that we had endured that too long. The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment, the more oppressive it became. ”

She also detailed her motivation in her autobiography, My Story “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

The road less traveled is a never busy but lonesome road, hence, do not be disappointed when family, friends, and loved ones decline to accompany you on this road as well as try to talk you out of embarking on this journey. Rather choose to engage these few tips in your quest to vision fulfilment or dreamland:

• FIX YOUR GAZE ON THE DESTINATION- seeing the end of your destination from the beginning of your journey on the road less travelled empowers you to stay steadfast and enthusiastic about your vision or dream regardless of what you may encounter on the way. In the words of Italian explorer, navigator, and colonizer Christopher Columbus, “By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.”

• COMMIT TO THE CAUSE- staying  committed to your cause  is like being on board a plane, train  or bus  and people getting off at every stop; you do not get persuaded to get off at the wrong destination just because everyone is; you still stay committed to where you are heading regardless of who gets off. “There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstance permit. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results,” Art Turock said. The road less travelled is not a popular or conventional path, hence, it takes a firm resolve and an unflinching believe in what you seek to achieve. "The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed," says Martina Navratilova.

• BE DETERMINED- “Determination gives you the resolve to keep going in spite of the roadblocks that lay before you,” declared Denis Waitley. When you set out on the road less traveled, you have to dig in your heels by refusing to do what other people are trying to persuade you to do or take the wide road which always seems easy but leads to island of misery and meaningless.

Whether you are called to be an entrepreneur, a teacher, a mechanic, an executive, a janitor, a musician, an actor or actress, a security personnel, or whatsoever be your calling in life. It is highly imperative to understand that for you to be extremely successful in your field of endeavour and be relevant in today's world, you have to be willing to go on the road less travelled - the unfamiliar, unexplored, and unpopular road.

Great people do not just go where the path may lead, they leave a trail for people to emulate; they set precedence for people to live by, revolutionize their generation and posterity regardless of how much it cost them by becoming facilitators of change.

Hence, in your effort to achieve your dreams, goals, and aspirations choose the uncharted path so you can set standards for people to keep. However, if have already taken the popular road, I urge you today to be courageous to turn back swiftly.  In the words of Irish author, C. S. Lewis: “We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.” Discover Your Greatness!