What if my path is different?

What if my path is……… different?

Different than what I thought it would be.

Different than what those closest to me thought it would be.

Different than what society expects of me.

Different from what I want it to be.

What if, at age 40, my path is still revealing itself? Can I surrender deeply enough to even see this path? Do I have the courage and perseverance to walk this path? Will I give myself the permission to walk this path?

How can I think differently?

It's so easy to get caught up in my own bubble. It's comfortable there. It's known and certain. And it's also very dangerous.

I was in my own bubble for most of my two years in San Francisco: the environment, the people, the conversations and information, my own schedule and routines. All of it. And even when I recognized it, I didn't really do very much to change it.

If we want to think differently, we have to get out of our own little bubbles that we've created. We have to change things up.

To change how we think, we can:

• Stop reading what everyone else is reading (Twitter, books, news, blogs)
• Stop listening to what everyone else is listening to (Music, podcasts, keynotes, thought leaders)
• Stop watching what everyone else is watching (Netflix, TV, Sports, Instagram, YouTube)
• Stop going where everyone else is going (popular coffee shops, social clubs, networking events, Napa, Tahoe, Hamptons)

I didn't say it was going to be easy and I didn't say you were going to like it. But if you want to think differently, change up your damn patterns.

Walk a different way to the office. Start listening to a totally new genre of music or podcast. Pick up a hobby that seems weird. Get lost in the woods. Make new friends way out of your age range and with very different upbringings. Read some early 19th century transcendentalism even though you despised it in high school. It all works.

If we want to think differently and unlock new levels of innovation, we have to mix it up.