Direction in Your Life

A map instructor early in my military career made two statements that have stuck with me for life. 

The first was, “It doesn’t matter where you have been.  You are here now.  Where are you going to go?  How are you going to get there?”  The second was, “You are never lost if you don’t care where you are.

Profound?  Not at the time.  They seemed like a waste of breath.  It took years before the actual meaning of those statements filtered through this thick skull of mine.  Roughly translated, the second phrase means this.  “You are never going to be successful if you don’t care what you are doing.”  If you are content with any job, as long as it provides enough money to keep a roof over your head and food on your table and electricity to your refrigerator for cold beer, then you are not going to be successful.  Unless, of course, that is your definition of success.  

Or, maybe that is the problem.  You have never defined success.  

What does success mean to you?  

What do you have to do to achieve it? 

 Answer these two questions, and you are on your way to becoming a leader.

The good news lies in the first phrase.  It doesn’t matter where you have been or what you have done.  

Have you made some mistakes in your life?  

Did you not go to college when your peers did because you wanted to “Relax” a little?  

Did you get involved with the bleeders of society?  

Did you fail to apply yourself in school?  

Have negative influences taken over your life?  

Well, take it back!

It doesn’t matter where you have been.  You are here now.  

Where are you going to go?  

Where are you going to go?  That is asking for the definition of success that I mentioned earlier.  

What is success to you?  Is it an office job with the big bucks?  Is it inventing a better mouse trap?  Is it becoming a doctor or lawyer?  Is it teaching, or coaching, or farming or being the best darn diesel mechanic in the state?

What it is doesn’t matter as long as you have defined what success means to you.  That definition is the motivation that will give you a reason to go on.

“-How are you going to get there?”  Once you have defined success, you must find the path that will take you there.  The path is relatively easy to find.  It is right in front you.  All you have to do is to open your eyes and follow it.  It is kind like doing a maze.  The easiest way to solve it is to look at the end and follow the path back to the beginning.  In this case, you look at your definition of success.  That is your goal.  Then you start back tracking to where you are in your life right now.  As with a maze, the objects that look like road blocks from the front are simply obstacles that can be readily overcome.

Here is an example:  You are a woman in your mid thirties who always wanted to be a nurse.  However, things came along that got in your way.  Road blocks shall we say.  Things like husbands, children, and time.  Minor details.  Then, one day you sit down and look at your definition of success.  That definition has multiple parts.  To be a good mother, a good wife and to become a nurse.    You could say to yourself that two out of three ain’t bad.  Or, you could start checking into nursing programs and see if there is a way that you can achieve all three.  You might be surprised at the answer.  Just ask my wife.  She is the person in this example.  She wasn’t satisfied with two out of three.  Now, she has it all.

You have to have direction in your life to become a leader.  It is mandatory.  If you are not going any place, nobody is going to follow you.  That direction is your definition of success.  If you are happy going to that job just because it pays the bills, then by all means keep going.  It leaves more room at the top for the rest of us.

Now, get off the bench and get back in the game!

Have and amazing day,

Coach Papa