Whose Voice Determines The Route You Take?

After I cursed out my phone's map app, I pondered this important question

Mar 25, 2023

two roads between trees — Photo by Jens Lelie on Unsplash

I cursed out the maps app on my phone recently. I opened it as I got ready to drive home, and it offered three possible routes. The one I chose was not the one it recommended, so I changed the route to reflect my choice.

As I drove, I noticed the app reverted back to its preferred route. I had taken that route before, so I knew it was not a good option.

When the app directed me to turn onto the road I did not want to take, I replied, “No! F*ck you!” Then I ignored its instructions until I was far enough along my chosen route that it stopped telling me to turn around and started providing guidance that was actually helpful.

Because I had been down the app’s recommended road before, I knew not to go that way again. I chose to start down the route I preferred, even though I wasn’t familiar enough with it to know every turn I would need to make to get home.

As I thought about that experience later, I realized how important it is for all of us to choose the routes we prefer in life, too, even if that means we have to ignore advice from others who think they know a better way.

We may need to pause periodically to ask ourselves whose voice convinced us to follow the route we’re currently on. Do we want to continue allowing that voice to determine the course of our life (or a particular aspect of it)? Is that route truly the best one? Have we learned something along the way that leads us to believe a different route would be better?

Please share your answers to any of those questions. I’d also love to hear about a time when you chose to ignore someone else’s recommendation and take the path you knew was better or wanted to try. Are you glad you did? What were the results?

P.S. Thanks to the subscribers who responded to last week’s poll about article lengths. The majority of you said that length doesn’t matter; about 35% said you prefer shorter posts. I appreciate your feedback!