Watch this video to hear my answer to this question or read the transcript below.
Today I want to discuss a topic that came to my mind recently after watching the television show Sunday Morning. One of the topics they had a little segment on was direction and orientation and understanding of physical directions — when people are out and about, how we know which direction is which, how we have cues and, even out in the wilderness when you don’t have certain cues that you might use in an urban area or a suburban area.
They talked about a lot of animals, especially birds when they migrate. They talked about how some birds that migrate from Florida up to Canada. They’ve tracked them and found they nest within a couple of feet of where they nested the previous year. So, it’s a pretty strong instinct and a pretty strong sense of direction.
But I think sometimes, as humans, we fail to be aware of any instincts or bearings that we have about direction, not necessarily about directions on the map, but directions about our life and where our lives are going.
So, I want to pose a question today for you to think about and for us to talk about a little bit. And that is, “Where are you going with your life? Where is your life going?” That’s an open-ended question, so I want to try to give it some boundaries.
Most of the time, when I think about something like that, it’s where I want to be personally, where I want to be professionally, how I want to be as a person and a human being, my state of being, enjoyment, and happiness in life. There are three things we have to think about when we think about where we’re going. Number one is you have to start with understanding where you are. Because without knowing where you are, you’re going to have a difficult time understanding how to get to where you’re wanting to go. In Alice in Wonderland, Alice stumbles upon the Cheshire Cat and asks him which way she should go. He asks her where she is trying to get to. She says she doesn’t know. The Cheshire Cat then says it doesn’t really matter which way you go.
Our lives sometimes can be lived that way. We don’t know where we’re wanting to go. We just amble through life and then we look up one day and we ask, “How did I get here? How come I didn’t make it to where I dreamed I would when I was a child? I wanted to be this, I wanted to do that, or I wanted to be at that place in life!”
Why we didn’t make it there is likely because we didn’t stop and, number one, determine where we are and then think about where we’re wanting to go. So, that’s the second thing. Know where you are then understand where you want to go, where you’re wanting to be, who you’re wanting to be, where you’re wanting to be, what you’re wanting to be.
Once you have those two points, if you remember back from your freshman math class, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Now, we all know that sometimes life is not lived in a straight line. We divert based on circumstances, based on situations, based on decisions that we make. They take us one way for a while and then we come back. If we know where we’re starting from and we know where we’re going, it’s like looking at the map. Sometimes, the map doesn’t give us a straight shot. We have to go this way to get to this particular street road or thoroughfare and then we go here and then eventually we take a right, take a left, and then we can potentially end up at the destination where we’re heading.
Life is like that. You have to – number one, understand where you are. Answer that question. Number two, do some deep soul-searching and inventory inside of yourself and decide where you’re wanting to go. Then, number three, sit down and talk about what kind of plan, what kind of route, what kind of actions, what kind of steps, what kinds of decisions, what kinds of behaviors, will you need to do and see and make to get from where you are to where you want to be.
So that’s really what it’s all about. We’ve all seen people that just seem to know exactly where they’re going. Every step they take seems planned out. Nothing seems happenstance. I’m not saying everything should be perfect. That’s not what I’m talking about at all. Part of life is the ability to live in the circumstances that we find ourselves and then guide and move ourselves toward a destination that we want. Now, there will be points along the way, there will be milestones along the way where you’ll stop and reassess the direction.
So, as you think about where you are and where you’re wanting to go, see if this doesn’t apply to you in your life. See if you can’t take a moment and reassess and say, “Okay, am I just ambling through life and do I have a plan? Am I clear on what I want to do, where I want to be?”
Sometimes we can’t think of 25 to 30 or 40 years in the future. We have to think about the next week, the next year, the next two years, things like that to be able to get through those destinations. If we have a greater sense of where we’re wanting to go, we’re wanting to go north, we’re wanting to go south, we’re wanting to go east, or west. If we have that kind of idea, we want to go that way because this is who we are, this is what drives us, this is what keeps us excited, this is what keeps us engaged, this is what we feel like we’re meant to do or be, and we make those decisions that help enable that, I think we’ll find a much deeper and greater sense of fulfillment in the things that we do and won’t be feeling as lost. It happens to all of us, we sometimes feel maybe we’ve lost our way a little bit. We’ll take a step back, take a deep breath, and reassess some things because of the day to day busyness in our lives. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget the mission, the goal, the objectives that we have for our lives.
What do you think? Does this make sense to you? Do you have a different point of view? Do you want to live your life without knowing where you want to be and you just want to take it one day at a time?
If you have a different point of view, I’d love to hear your perspective. So leave a comment if you would. Let me know what you think about this topic.
I want to leave you with this thought, much like Alice in Wonderland, if you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t really matter which way you head.
So think about that. Determine where you want to be and then plot your course of action to get you to where you want to go.
Until next time!
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