Two Ways of Living Life

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.” – Robert Frost (1920)

The above lines (taken from Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”) beautifully describes two distinct ways of living a life.

First let us look at the “More traveled road”. This is a style of life which is mediocre, in which a person lives like the normal “crowd”. He does not have a vision of what he would like to see in future. Making difference in the society, bringing a change in this world etc. is not even in his remote thoughts. All he is concerned about is his survival, his family, his means of earnings and other trivial things. The maximum achievement in such lifestyle is a well-settled job (with adequate means of sustenance), a happy family and well-educated kids. This type of crowd does not have the vigor to put effort towards a cause rather (in many cases) they do not have a goal. When they look at the “wrong” things around him, he is taken over by hopelessness and all he can think is: “It is beyond my scope to make any change”. He always looks for safety. Venturing, entrepreneurship are not found in his dictionary. When such person reaches old age and when he looks back at his passed-life, he will not have anything significant to enumerate which has affected other’s life. After his death, people will not have anything significant about him to remember. His name is “lost” and surely he is not missed by the society.

The analogy of such people is like a spectator in a soccer game. They watch events and maximum thing that they can do is cheer (or boo) which is not even noticed by the guy sitting next to him.


The other way of living life is what Frost described as the “Less traveled” road. This is the road in which a person tries to be distinct. He tries to be outstanding from the normal crowd (success of which depends on what God has destined for him). He has a vision, a goal to make a difference in the society. His efforts are completely directed towards realizing his vision and achievement of his goals. He doesn’t view his job and “means of survival” as the end but as a means-to-end. This does not mean that he deserts his family/job etc. but contrary to that many times such people fare far better than the normal crowd in these areas. It is just that their center of struggle is not restricted to his survival and his family, rather he has bigger goals. The key to the success of such people is time management and one can hardly find them idle. They never suffer from hopelessness and they always strive to change things which they don’t like. The attitude of this person is to set a goal and strive for it. He does not care about success; primary importance for him is to work towards his goal. Such people do not search for safe-havens rather they are entrepreneurial and venturesome. Indeed, when such a person reaches old age, he can look back at his past-life with dignity. He feels satisfied that he has struggled for “something” during his age and has positively impacted the society. Names of such persons are engraved on hearts of people after their death, and they are missed by the society.

The analogy of such people is like that of a player in a soccer game. These are the people who impact the whole arena and are not silently impacted like the spectators. Indeed, if such people were to be absent in this world, then nothing would be left except selfishness and the world would become a wretched place to live.