In his first book (Meditations on Quixote), José Ortega y Gasset writes as follows (as quoted in his essay "Preface for Germans"):
Woe to the race that does not halt at the crossroads before continuing on its way, that does not make a question of its own selfhood: that does not feel the heroic need to explain its destiny, to inundate its historic mission with light!
It strikes me that the same applies to individuals (yes, I tend to individualize everything). So just I transformed the idea into a short (though, I think, not very good) poem:
Crossroads
(after José Ortega y Gasset)
When you finally arrive at
The crossroads of your life
Do not plunge blindly on through, but
Stop: inquire deeply
Into yourself, come to know the
Meaning of your ideal,
Shine great light on your potential,
And only then move on.