The Courage to Choose Your Path
The path that is truly yours is the one you keep coming back to and find easy traction on, even though accepting it is terrifying because it can change everything around you.
Dandapani describes wanting to be a monk from a young age, wavering toward other ideas as a teenager, and finding that only the monk path gave him easy traction. He then talks about why recognising your own path frightens people: accepting it can mean leaving a comfortable, well-paid life that your family depends on.
What this talk covers
- He wanted to be a monk from very young, then thought about being a movie star or a soccer player, and none of those things resonated or stuck.
- Whenever he came back to the monk path there was easy traction, and eventually he accepted that this was his path.
- He is still tempted by new shiny objects that did not exist in his last life, and still cannot imagine doing anything else.
- Asking what you are genuinely comfortable creating or doing is a terrifying exercise, because it could change everything around you.
- Financial security is often what keeps someone in place, because wealth is how a family person provides safety, health and care for the people they love.
Ever since I picked this path, I can't imagine doing anything else.Dandapani
Questions
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Look for traction. He tried other ideas and none of them resonated or stuck, but whenever he returned to the monk path there was easy traction, and that is what made him accept it as his.
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Because it can shift your whole world. If you have a good job, a family and college to pay for, moving toward what you want deep inside puts real security at risk, and people are terrified to go down that path.
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Often. Wealth is what allows a family person to create safety, provide health care and nurture the people they love, so that financial security can keep you in a place where you do not go towards what you want.
Transcript
663 words · 3:40
And then once you're dead, right? I mean, you have to understand also in my journey of, you know, wanting to be a monk since I was so young, and then I got into puberty and it's like,
oh, girls are cool, you know, why do I wanna be a monk? Maybe I should be a movie star or maybe I should be a soccer player. Just all the things that, you know,
a kid would go through and think, and I would wave and go back and forth and maybe I should do this or maybe I should do that. But none of those things resonated.
none of those things I could stick with. But whenever I came back to the monk path, traction, easy traction of just going down this path. So finally, I had to accept the fact that this is my path. This is what I want to do, even though in this life, I'm tempted by new shiny objects, which maybe wasn't around in the 1800s in my last life. And now I come back in this life
I can go like, shit, look, there's computers and there's phones and there's this and that and TV. And then I just go, you know, ever since I picked this path, I can't imagine doing anything else, Dave.
I really can't. So I would challenge, I don't normally do this. I think I've done this once or twice in a couple of episodes now, but like, I would challenge our listeners.
What is that thing? You described it really well just now. what is that thing that just is, puts you in this, I don't want to say flow state, because that's a different thing kind of, what is that thing that just you're
comfortable in, in creating or doing? And explore that a little deeper, I think, because that is probably, if you believe in this philosophy of, of multiple lives and so on, that might be the essence of who you are, right? Yes. And it's terrifying, Dave, to do this exercise because it could shift your
own wall. It could change everything around you and people are terrified to go down that path. I don't understand, like how would it change everything? What if you were working for a company right now and you had a position, you had a night to fight, and then you know you realize that you know inherently
you're an entrepreneur. You said you went through that experience when you a 30. And so yeah, and I was forced into it, which is an easy way to do it. Yes. But if you're making two, $300,000 in a job, you're comfortable with it. That's a lot harder to leave a job where you're paying for college. You're 39 years old, your family, you know,
it's a great job. You're making 300k a year, you know, life's good. But then deep inside yourself, you go, I want to create, I want to build something, I can hold something. And then you go, should I do it? That's scary.
Yeah, super scary because it's so much at risk, you know, and one security as a family person is wealth, right? Because wealth allows you to provide for the people that you can create safety and health and feed them and care for them and nurture them.
So that financial security may keep you in a place where you don't go towards what you want. We're a little over time, but can you give me five more minutes? I can give you 15, Dave.
Oh my God. You said you had 15. Yes. Well, the question, you've talked a lot about purpose, and that's a tough one.
Is that what we've been talking about for the past 10 minutes? Is this purpose? I would say, for me, I'll use me as an example because it'll be easy and I can give a shorter on soon.