To navigate forward is a long game, not a short play. To navigate forward is to take the winds pushing you back but still be able to see your sunny, calm watered future over the horizon. You have one job today – go to sleep tonight with the satisfaction that you took a step forward.
Often, I do not know what my day is going to look like. Life can get crazy. I think people underestimate the times in their life when they are not going to know what the next minute, hour or day will hold.
I have a plan, but plans change. When in clinic, I have a diary of patients. When working at home, I have a Productivity planner – a new addition to my life that does help me keep focus. But the day never goes to plan. Patient cancel or run late. Partners need attention and help with tasks. Their plans change too, which affects your plans. These are the realities of life.
There is one constant thread in my days, weeks and month. And ALL the most successful people in the world have this same thread. If you go back through high achievers histories; you study their movements; you study who they have been in good and in bad times, you will notice that they get started on their plans as soon as possible and have the ability to navigate forward regardless of the situation.
Navigate Forward
Picture a person out on the ocean in a ship. Not everything is going to go theor way. Not everything is going to go the way they planned it. They are going to have to adjust. It’s called adaptability.
They are going to have set backs. They are going to have problems. They are going to, at times, be a little off course, however from a navigational point of view they are going to be navigating towards the destination.
I see a lot of people who feel really good when they move forward ten steps. They feel like they’ve failed when then move back two steps.
You Have To Get Bigger
You have to get bigger than the day to day. You have to zoom out and look at your life’s direction. Do you have the ability to move in a forward direction even when the wind blows you two steps back. The ability to navigate forward even after a bad week. The ability to navigate forward even after a bad month.
You are not defined by one week. You are not defined by one month. You are not even defined by one year.
There are examples after example after examples of successful men and women who have changed the world over the course of history. They did not do it until they had endured chronic seasons of set back. But they corrected course and navigated correctly so that they were able to catch the next wave or current to move them forward.
You have to focus today to navigate forward without collateral damage. You have to navigate forward without drama. You have to navigate forward without inflicting unnecessary problems on the world around you.
I get the feeling that a lot of people are obsessed with their every single hour, every single day, every single week. “This was not a good day. I failed”.
Protect the way that you view yourself in a season of set back. Your season of moving forward is coming. You need to prepare for it.
To navigate forward is a long game, not a short play. To navigate forward is to take the winds pushing you back but still be able to see your sunny, calm watered future over the horizon.
Go to sleep tonight knowing that in some area of your life you took a step forward. You do not need to make twenty advancements in one day. One area of your life. You made a course correction. You progressed today. You were able to navigate forward. You had directional momentum in at least one area of your life. f you focus on that today, you will find it and you will go to bed knowing that you moved forward.
Yours optimally,
Scott