“Often you shall think your road impassable, sombre and companionless. Have will and plod along; and round each curve you shall find a new companion.” ― Mikhail Naimy, The Book of Mirdad: The Strange Story of a Monastery Which Was Once Called the Ark
Where there's a will, there's a way. While I'm convinced this idiom is ultimately a truism measured over the expanse of time, it often requires monumental leaps of faith to remain optimistic when you're in the midst of willing your way through (up, over, around) an obstacle. Especially when the objectives of others' (coworkers, family members, society, governing bodies) appear to be diametrically opposed to yours AND driven by equally willful optimists.
There's more than one way to skin a cat. This is another (albeit egregiously worded) idiom I consider to be mostly true. As you're willing your way along you'll inevitably encounter a fork in the road at which the way will become infinitely more difficult to ascertain. No one path is objectively wrong if we assume there is a resolution on the other side. Even when the course taken by others appears to trample over yours and head in the direction of utter failure (as far as you can tell). Each party will reach a subjectively proper solution though one outcome may ultimately prove to be unanimously heralded as "the best."
It's better to be safe than sorry. Is it? Not according to Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. I tend to agree with her sentiment that it's "easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission." Consider being embroiled against the id, which would rather relax and partake of reality, while you're willing yourself to find the way. "Just play it safe and get on with it, be the hero," says the id. But here's where you have to ask yourself whether you're after a subjectively proper solution or if you're willing to go after "the best." At least a few of the "others" are going to succumb to the id and trudge along toward an inevitable, safe outcome.
Like shooting fish in a barrel. Nothing worth doing is "like shooting fish in a barrel."
It's a thin line between love and hate. And so it is. After all that willing and risk-taking, and not worrying about what the "others" are doing, you've made that mountain into a molehill. Or at least you can finally see the way from where you are today. Few seek the path of the lone wolf, but there are those that do. Such narcissism rarely yields "the best" results. Sometimes willing yourself to the way means getting out of your own way or even merging your way with the ways of others. Which can be a heavy weight to bear, especially for the id .