forge a new path

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

to create or establish an entirely new direction, career, way of life, or approach that departs from inherited patterns, conventional expectations, or previous constraints; the metallurgical metaphor of forging — shaping metal through heat and repeated striking — implies that creating a new path requires effort, determination, and willingness to work through resistance; forging a new path is associated with the first-generation experience of building a life in a new context without the benefit of established models or family precedents, and with the broader human aspiration to determine one's own direction rather than following a pre-existing route laid out by others