Be Prepared to Walk Alone

When you are working on your dream, not everyone will understand your commitment. Not everyone will believe that you can achieve it. Friends will tempt to you go out for drinks when you know you need to put in time on your goals. Others may resent how much time you’re putting in to make your dream come because you’re ‘neglecting’ them. That’s because they don’t have your vision of the life you’re working to create for yourself. That’s why you must be prepared to walk alone.

A Lonely Road

In 2004, I was in a job that I didn’t like. I dreaded going into the office. The days passed slowly…to the point where it was torture. I knew I couldn’t stay. Even though I had nothing lined up, I decided to quit and spend time working on my writing. In many ways, I was at the beginning of my writing journey, and I had no illusions of hitting it big super quickly. But I was prepared to walk alone, and I resigned from a well-paying job in the federal civil service.

When people learned that I was leaving, and that I was taking six months just to write, some wished me well. But it didn’t take long for the haters to come out. Some said they couldn’t do it, because they couldn’t afford to. Others were angry that they didn’t have a partner to support them, hence they were stuck where they were (nota: my then partner still expected me to pay my share of everything). Some told me I was crazy. Only one, who was five years out from retirement, said that if they had it to do over again, they would choose differently.

Be Prepared to Walk Alone

Despite the naysayers, despite the critics of my work, I kept writing. Because I believed in my vision for my life, for I heeded the call for what I felt compelled to do. When I decided, too, to give up alcohol, a lot of people asked me why. It was me prioritizing my health, but a lot of people didn’t understand why I couldn’t just be a social drinker.

Here’s the other thing I learned when I started to walk alone. You don’t owe anyone an explanation. This is your life, and you get to live it your way, according to your rules. And there’s nothing wrong when you walk alone because, as Wayne Dyer tells us, “You cannot be lonely if you like the person you’re alone with.”

Let me, then, leave you today with this last thought…

You are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And, best of all, you do not need anyone’s permission to be—unapologetically—who you are.