Ever heard someone say, “It’s my way or the highway”? Meaning, you can do as I say or you can hit the bricks. In other words, ‘I am so positive I am right, that I am not willing to even entertain the possibility of another alternative.’

Why is that? Why do we often default to such closed-off thinking? Why are we so certain that we have all the answers, such as precludes all other avenues?

We are pretty darn presumptuous if you ask me.

Yes, sometimes we are right and we do have the answer. But more often than not, the ‘my way’ mentality is a kind of mental shorthand we use to justify our position, authority, or ego. It is something we resort to when we don’t have the energy or interest in helping to educate the other person. It’s easier to say ‘just do it’ than to help them see why.

Those of you who read my work regularly know that I am found of wordplay. I like to play around with sentences, phrases, and punctuation. So what if instead we said:

“It’s my way or the High Way.”

What if instead of automatically reverting to our usual preselected set of options, we opened up to the possibility of something altogether new, something hitherto unknown completely out of the blue?

What if instead of blindly following what we think we know, we paused and listened to the higher self—the High Way—that part of us that always knows? That higher part might not necessarily lead us where we think or where we’d like, but it always leads us right.

Here is one of my favorite quotes from Franz Kafka:

“You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will role in ecstasy at your feet.”

This week, set aside some time to get quiet. Really quiet. Listen to what your higher self, your High Way, says to you.

You might discover a better way than your way.