Life as a maze...,

When I think about life in simple terms, I often find myself making the comparison between lifes' journey and a maze. A maze demands that we make choices that will be wrong in order for us to eventually find the right path to the destination. In entering the maze we accept that it will be very unlikely that we will solve the puzzle without making a single wrong turn. Knowing that to be true we also accept that we can backtrack and change our choices each time we find ourselves in a dead end or an eternal loop. The risk increases of course if the number of alternative directions increases. In other words the more options there are the more likely hood we will choose a wrong turn.

Life has similarities, we move through life making choices, sometimes we find ourselves in a place where we feel uncomfortable or that we aren't making progress, sometimes we are comfortable and feel we are moving towards our destination. In those ways life could be seen as a maze that over time we can solve and reach an outcome. Simple really.

Now lets go back to the maze. Whenever a decision is made that doesn't allow for continued progress, I know I have made a wrong turn. But lets think on that for a moment, it is only in making that "wrong" turn that I now know I need to make a different choice. In other words I have an asset in knowing that I am not on the right pathway. So where is the "wrong" ? The "wrong" choice has led to a positive correction.

I now have information that I can use to backtrack and from there choose differently. The information helps me, but notably doesn't give me a solution, just information. In both life and in the maze it is necessary to gather this first hand experience to move forward to a conclusion.

Maybe that puts a different light on what it means to make a mistake in life ?

We did agree that we accept that to move through a maze we know that we will not get through without any wrong turns. Do we accept that about life too ?

We also mentioned the fact that the increased number of choices available will increase the number of wrong turns made. Keep in mind that in life there are unlimited choices. Infinite.

Add to that the most important difference of all. A maze has a solution, an outcome that is the same for every single participant. Every person who finds the solution has found and followed the same path to the destination. It is finite and repeatable. I don't think of life as having a destination in the same way. We may have hopes and aspirations but really life is an experience not a journey. One persons dreams and happiness are unique to that individual, so lifes' maze has an infinite number of solutions, or put another way is unsolvable.

Yet here we are in the maze of life.

Back to the simple maze again. What if you were told that once you entered the maze you had to abide by the following rules;

Every time you made a turn you had to close the door behind you.

The solution to the maze, your destination, might change while you are in the maze.

Does that change the odds of solving the puzzle ? Would you enter knowing that ?

But we are all participants of life.

To find a way in life it is important then, to keep a few things in mind.

Like how often is it that we make choices that close doors ? Think careers, relationships, culture, religion/belief systems, gender, inclusion an accepted social system.

Our lives offer us infinite choices, every decision we make, or choice we make, both physically and in our thinking will take us to a different place. We are always moving. It is this that helps defines who we are and how we are as humans being.

If we tried to move through the maze and each time we made a choice we convinced ourselves that we were moving in the right direction, (or worse still allowed others to convince us), and were so convinced in fact, that we closed a door behind us, we would trap ourselves. We may end up in a big loop that allows us freedom to move, or we may be in a dead end that gives us little freedom to even move, but the problem is the same, we locked ourselves in and turned something infinite into something limited. We denied our options.

Does it make any sense to enter life closing doors behind us knowing that if we close a door based on a decision that seemed right at the time, we will risk getting trapped.

By always accepting that we may need to backtrack it is vital that no matter how strongly we believe something to be right, we must always accept that at some point we may come to realise that we would be better off changing that decision, belief or choice in order to keep options open. Don't make your beliefs your identity, be prepared to change.

While a maze has a solution, a destination or outcome which is the same no matter who is experiencing it (in other words it is finite), life offers infinite choices and therefore our destinations will not be the same. No two people will experience life the same way, so my destination is quite probably nothing like yours. So my “wrong” choice may be "right" for you. We don’t “solve” life, we experience it. We don't make "wrong" choices we gain experience and knowledge.

Paradoxically it means that my advice or anyone elses' advice is only applicable to them. No one can help us to our own destination because they cannot know where it is any more than we can. Following others will not work.

But we are not educated to think this way. Life is presented as a solvable journey. Follow the right path you will get to the destination. Life is presented as having a finite number of choices and as long as humanity allows themselves to be confined in this tiny loop of the maze there will be limitations.

Open the doors, take steps back, remember there is no “right” way to express life and that our “wrong” choices can be assets if we see them and use them to try and find an alternative. Life choices are infinite, entertain that notion. Become aware of where you have closed doors. Be brave enough and prepared to open them.

How further restricted do we become by allowing these choices to be made for us. An unlimited potential becomes a measured destination.

Deal with only what you know to be true to you. Then ask questions, demand proof, but keep in mind that what can be proven now is also uncertain since it may change with new knowledge and information. So accept that what we think we know is only that, a thought or theory that for the moment fits. We can work with it but do not let it define or limit you, it is real only at this moment. Apply that approach to literally everything, because outside of humanities own inventions and endeavours we know nothing to be absolutely certain. If nothing else, this way of thinking will allow for growth and evolution of individuals. It goes against the natural system and the perfect expression of life to use our thinking in any way that limits our potential.

Do not close doors behind you. As you move through the path of life, think of it as a maze without a destination. It is an experience. Your choices determine your pathway. The path way shouldn’t determine your choices. The moment you say “I know the way”, you have closed an infinite number of doors. All you can know is how things seem to be in that moment. That may change in another moment. Therefore do not lock yourself in by the strength of your belief in a perceived truth.

Keep the doors open so you can change direction or backtrack. The path is yours to create, it has infinite direction..., until you close even a single door.