As I come to the end of one year and the beginning of the next, it occurred to me to look back on my life and the choices I’ve made along the way.

My thoughts wandered to a quote that I’ve heard before: “The Road Less Traveled…” So, I decided to look it up to see its origin. It turns out that it is a paraphrase from a line in a poem titled, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost.

I want to focus on the last paragraph:

I shall be telling this with a sigh. Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that’s made all the difference.

In 2025, I will celebrate 13 years of blogging. I can’t believe it’s been that long since God called me to create my blog to inspire people through the insights He has given me like this one.

Question: How many paths have you experienced that, by taking one instead of the other, changed the trajectory of your life? I’ve had many.

I’ve written about several during these 13 years:

A Decision: The Beginning of Change https://drjacklynchisholm.com/archives/date/2012/04

Personal Transformation Has a Cost: Are You Willing to Pay? https://drjacklynchisholm.com/archives/18https://drjacklynchisholm.com/archives/18

Have You Hit a “Redirecting” Wall? https://drjacklynchisholm.com/archives/date/2015/02

Each choice to take a different path led me to the life I’m living now; a life I’m truly grateful to God for because of what He has allowed me to experience and achieve: (1) choosing to leave an abusive relationship in my teens with the possibility of death looming over me; (2) choosing to attend a selective university as a first-generation, Black student and earning a doctorate over a 19-year period when, at several points, I wanted to quit; (3) after a failed marriage, choosing to try love again. My husband Robert and I will celebrate our 40th anniversary in 2025!; (4) choosing to live when life had become too difficult to bear and suicide was a considered option; (5) choosing to follow God’s plan when it didn’t make sense and finding my purpose in the process; and (6) choosing to honor God’s leading to write a blog and a book when every instinct I had based on my troubled past made me question not only my ability to write, but also the impact my words may have on others.

These are just a few examples of the paths less traveled that I’ve chosen…so far.

So, like me, when you come to “two roads that diverge,” remember that, as Jennifer Aniston said, “There are no regrets in life, just lessons.”

I wish you a prosperous and Happy New Year!

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I have been silent for awhile as I focused on getting through the pandemic, writing my book Leadership Lessons: Notes From and For the Journey, and completing my studies at the Harvard Business School to become an alumna. But, given my journey of the past two years, I thought it was time to share what I learned about dreams deferred.

Let me begin with my book…

Leadership Lessons had been an idea of mine for over 10 years with the encouragement of people I’ve known and others I met along my path. I’m so proud to say, “I did it!” I, of course, can’t take the credit — the book was birthed through me but written by God and published in 2023.

The process of writing the book was taxing because I had to contend with feelings of: 1) doubt — there are a million books, what’s one more going to matter?, 2) confusion — what should I write about and what should it be titled?, and the one I struggled with the most 3) insecurity — why would anyone want to hear what I have to say?

As with anything God-compelled, I had to write the book because the lessons were meant to be shared; while I have written about my experiences in my blogs, the book is the first time that I can tell my story fully, with the hope that it will inspire others. (Shameless plug: the book may be purchased at drjacklynachisholm.com.)

Harvard Business School…

As far back as I can remember, I’ve wanted to attend Harvard, but as I’ve recounted in my book, I found myself: first, as a victim of a high school teacher’s comments in the 10th grade that eroded my self-confidence, affected my grades in math through my senior year, and ended any hope I had of being accepted to Harvard as an undergraduate student, and secondly, at the same time in an abusive relationship that held my life and my dreams captive for several years until I was able to escape from it.

As a dedicated life-long learner, I believe in investing in my professional development and am privileged to have earned three degrees and several certificates from universities that I could only fantasize about as a young woman, and that recently culminated in my becoming a Harvard Business School alumni.

I shared the happy news on Facebook and LinkedIn and received some wonderful comments, especially to my statement that, “What God has reminded me over and over is that my dream of attending Harvard decades ago while deferred, was not denied! To God be the glory!”

So, to those who may have given up on a dream because you think God said “no,” maybe it wasn’t a solid no, it was just a “not now.” And maybe, like me, it’s your time to dream again!