Photo titled: “Kid interrupting poignant selfie” August 2017

My life has next to zero resemblance of what I thought it would look like when I started to act like an adult (I just snorted when I typed that.)

I was supposed to marry my soul mate the first time around. I was supposed to have won something super shiny by now like an Oscar, (And the winner for best documentary is…) or have scored a car in a raffle because God wanted to bonus me for being such a spiritual overachiever.

In my new-to-adulthood mind (about the same time I was sleeping with much older men to test out my power and learn about wine. [I learned nothing about wine.]) I envisioned myself going to a lot of cocktail parties wearing all those big rings I was collecting. I was going to speak fluent French, not just enough to swear in Québécois or order crepes.

In my incredible future I would have been doing yoga so consistently for so many years, that by now I’d be a sinewy little waif with abs of asana steel…wearing one of my cocktail rings in yoga class. So chill about my flexi awesomeness.

I would have been to Fiji and seen an opera at The Met by now. I was also going to have two divinely-timed children. (I went for quality over quantity.) Oh and I was going to have the same friends forever and ever. And I was going to paint like Rothko.

None of those things have happened, some never will. (Except, I always knew that I’d have a little boy and he’d be incredible.) I may or may not get to Fiji this lifetime. But you know, I think I’d rather just keep going to Paris for crepes.

Every “image” I had of my “ideal” life has been interrupted, derailed, splattered on the road to this sometimes way too f-cking complicated, patience-of-Job, deeply deep and BEAUTIFUL life that I find myself in. CORRECTION: I didn’t “find” myself here. I made choices to be here — right where I am. One choice at a time.

Every time you choose to go for a “feeling” instead of an “image”, you’re making a courageous choice.

Here’s what I’d say to her, to me in my tube skirt and cowboy boots, chugging chocolate milk on a Saturday morning for a tequila hangover:

How do you want your future to feel?

And she would have replied, without hesitation, “I want my life to feel AMAZING!” And she wouldn’t have had a clue what that was going to “look” like. “Ideal” would have been a mystery to unfold instead of a trail of milestones.

And she would have known that…the detours and interruptions are warning bells and magical spells.

Choose to unfold. It’s way less predictable, less tidy, it’s highly inconvenient. And it’s where the power is.

The kind of beautiful, gorgeous power you’ve been craving to feel your entire life.

Danielle LaPorte is an invited member of Oprah’s SuperSoul 100, a group who, in Oprah Winfrey’s words, “is uniquely connecting the world together with a spiritual energy that matters.” She is author of White Hot Truth: Clarity for keeping it real on your spiritual path—from one seeker to another. The Fire Starter Sessions, and The Desire Map: A Guide To Creating Goals With Soul—the book that has been translated into 8 languages, evolved into a yearly day planner system, a top 10 iTunes app, and an international workshop program with licensed facilitators in 15 countries.

Named one of the “Top 100 Websites for Women” by Forbes, millions of visitors go to DanielleLaPorte.com every month for her daily #Truthbombs and what’s been called “the best place online for kickass spirituality.” A speaker, a poet, a painter, and a former business strategist and Washington-DC think tank exec, Entrepreneur Magazine calls Danielle, “equal parts poet and entrepreneurial badass…edgy, contrarian…loving and inspired.” Her charities of choice are Eve Ensler’s VDay: a global movement to end violence against women and girls, and charity: water, setting out to bring safe drinking water to everyone in the world. She lives in Vancouver, BC with her favourite philosopher, her son. You can find her @daniellelaporte and just about everywhere on social media.