find yourself in time
orient to your season
navigate from there
Imagine you are planning a trip. To get where you want to go, you need to know 3 things:
- Where you are
- Where you want to go
- How to get from 1 to 2
So far, this is pretty obvious.
When it comes to planning a life, this actually gets more simple, and more complicated.
The only crucial piece is #1. Although this would seem to be the easiest to identify, it’s more nuanced than it seems.
Most people don’t know where they are.
Let’s break it down, in reverse order:
How To Get There
If you’re taking an actual trip, there’s a finite number of ways to get from point A to point B, even if you consider every possible option.
When it comes to “how to get where you want to go” in life, the number of options is infinite. You can ask a hundred people and get a hundred different responses.
How you will navigate from point A to point B depends on your particular strength and circumstances.
Often, people get stuck in life because they get caught in the tyranny of the how.
Remember that the how is the least important part of this journey. There’s always a way.
Where You Want to Go
Again, in a literal trip this is vital. Consider the GPS navigator in your car or on your phone: you can’t use it unless you input your destination.
In life this is a little more nuanced. You can head off in a direction without knowing your exact destination.
In fact, even when we think we know our desired destination, we often change our minds as we get closer. We may realize that what we thought we wanted is not really what we wanted.
Many people who get stuck in life struggle because they don’t know their destination and they don’t even pick a direction.
Or they are rigid in their choice of destination and don’t listen to the signals telling them to change.
Even if you don’t know your destination, choose a direction so you at least start heading somewhere.
Keep in mind that you can always adjust along the way.
Where You Are
It would seem that this is the most obvious piece of of the puzzle. If you’re talking about a literal trip, it usually is. You know where you’re starting from — unless you’re lost.
When navigating life, we get stuck because we get lost. This is where it gets more complex, because where you are is also about when you are.
This is about seasonality:
What season are you in?
Life isn’t linear. It’s cyclical. Just like nature has her seasons, so too do we.
We go through overarching seasons of life. And in each part of life we go through seasons.
Each project, relationship, career, and job we have will go through seasons. You’ll go through seasons in each role you assume in life.
Correctly identifying and understanding where you are in your journey as a function of when — which season — is a crucial piece of the puzzle.
Quite simply: it’s a game-changer.
Without orienting yourself you can’t effectively navigate to any destination. You might take the right action, but at the wrong time.
Imagine searching for the sunset in the middle of the day: after a while you’ll be frustrated that you’re not getting results.
Once you know where you are in the cycle, you know whether you need to rest or dig deep, lay back or double down on your efforts.
When you know where you are, you can effectively plan how to get where you want to go, even if all you have is a general direction.
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