How Do I Know I'm on the Right Path in My Life?

This question can provide the fertile and rich soil from which a life of our greatest dreams are be planted

When I was in my early 20’s, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. At the time it was an overwhelming challenge to pick one path. Fortunately, I attended the 8th best engineering university in the United States, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and my freshman year the chair of the Mining Engineering department suggested that I declare my major as “Mining”, switched around all of my classes, and I simply stuck with the program.

Whenever I would feel lost in my life, or I wasn’t sure if I was on the right path, I always had that “North Star” to guide my life. I was never much a “relationship person”, and all of my relationship experience probably adds up to a few years, but knowing that one day I would be a working engineer digging for gold or silver or copper always gave my life a sense of meaning and purpose through any setback that I face.

Snow-covered mountains in watercolor. AI Generated.

We live in an incredible time of history filled with nearly unlimited potential, opportunities, and material success. Our society is no longer filled with “classes”, and upward mobility is still possible in America. Despite this opportunity or maybe because of it, I’ve noticed that many people suffer from an aimless existence.

The beginning stages of discovering our life’s purpose, are like small seeds in early spring growing up from snow-covered dirt. A general dissatisfaction such as not knowing if we are on the right path, the desire to do the most with our limited time on Earth, or if we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing. These questions can provide the fertile and rich soil from which a life of our greatest dreams are be planted.

The question, “am I on the right path?” and the search itself are because we want to maximize the time that we have on this Earth, for our lives to have made a difference in the lives of those around us, ultimately for there to have been a purpose for us being on this planet.

I think that it’s very common for college students in their early 20’s to have this question for a couple of reasons. First off, college is a place where we are exposed to thousands of new people from very different walks of life, new ideas, new books, and even entirely new career paths. Secondly, for the most part, our lives are pretty well scheduled, mapped out, and controlled by our parents and greater society basically until high school graduation when we turn 18 and have a bit more freedom in our lives to go to college, start a job, or start a family.

The only way for each person to resolve this question is a life-long and deeply personal journey. Connect with your instincts, listen to what they say, I think that while mostly it’s early 20-year-olds who struggle with this issue, at all ages and situations we have something valuable to add, not only to the world, but more importantly to ourselves and those we care about.

If you ask yourself “Am I on the right path?” and immediately you realize that the job you’re in doesn’t align with your values, it might be time to start polishing your resume and thinking about what type of work you’d like to do.

If you ask yourself this question and you realize that you’re in an unhappy stifling relationship, it might be time to start looking at what it is that you do want. One aspect of a “path” is that it ends in a destination. So if you want to get to the top of a mountain, knowing that you’re on the right path is knowing where your path leads to which destination. If you want to be an engineer, or a doctor, or a lawyer then the “right path” is the one that leads to that destination.

I encourage all of my readers to ask yourself, inwardly and quietly without the expectation of an answer today or tomorrow, “Am I on the right path in my life?”. Would you be happy at the destination of where the path you’re currently on leads to? Is there a different destination that you’d like to arrive at, and what small changes could you make to your path to ensure a different destination? Continually asking and adjusting our direction in life will ensure that our outward life is an expression of our inward values.

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Thank you to all my readers for the past few months of dedication for my writing. I initially started this journey because I had a singular story to tell, but I keep writing because I keep discovering new hidden side-roads on this journey. The weather has finally cooled down a bit, the smell of green chile roasting is in the air, and we are all entering a new season of life.