Ò̩nà kan ò wo̩jà

That's a Yoruba phrase that I love for its meaning. Whenever I write ‘OKOW’ on my notepad, it's a forcing function to remember the other possibilities.

That phrase, Ò̩nà kan ò wo̩jà, means 'not only one way leads to the market'

No one path leads us to our destination.

Sometimes, the best path for us is the path we choose. Others may follow a different path and we both arrive at the same destination.

Other times, the path we choose doesn’t look like a direct path. But it will get us to our destination.

It's a reminder that there is no one way to live, no one way to be a lover, no one way to be a human being.

And there is no one way to decide what path we choose.

Two books that remind me of this are David Eagleman's SUM and Derek Sivers' How to Live. What made both work for me is that they find different answers to the same question. None of those answers were wrong. None of them were truly correct. And that's what makes life more interesting.

All it takes to get to our destination is finding another path to get there and staying on course. A focus on finding the next path is a better use of energy than complaining over the path not taken.

It’s often easier to keep thinking about the familiar paths. Those are the best moments to remember this piece.

OKOW.