"Stay on the road"

I picked up a book today called “The right Words at the Right Time.” It is a collection of stories that were put together by Marlo Thomas. I’ve read it before, and so I thought I would just glance back through it. Something caught my eye. I was looking at Jay Leno’s comments. His message was that some people do better when others are watching, like him. Then I flipped through a few more stories, and the one by Dennis Miller, another commedien caught my eye. He said that when he was young trying to get started into show business Jay Leno told him one night to just “stay on the road.” As I read that, several thoughts came into my mind about how easily we are distracted from our purposes. I thought about my education. How easy it was when I was young, to quit college and get a job. Only to find myself ten years later back in school, and how much harder it was the second time around. How further along I would be, if I hadn’t left. Then I thought about my spiritual goals and the side paths I’ve taken there. How much closer to where I want to be if I had not side tracked. How much better of a person I could be and the people I could have served if I hadn’t got side tracked.

As I think about it even now, how easy I become side tracked instead of staying on the road. I think that in order for us to be successful in life, we have to “stay on the road.” We cannot be easily diverted for whatever reason or excuse we can come up with, it will harm us in the end.