Setting a Roadmap to What You Want...Part Two (A response to Johnnie's Blog)

[Robin McCulloch]

Now you have a road map in hand that shows you how to get where you want to go.

So then do you look at this map and say, “I am not going to waver from this route till I get there.” Well you have to stay focused and keep you eye on the next stop on your journey. But here is a key element to following any road map. The journey to one stop along the way sometimes changes your perspective and you can see a better way to the next stop. There is a bridge that you thought was going to be there that is now washed out. You are presented with a choice of over the mountains or through the valley that you couldn’t see from your last stop. So sometimes a detour becomes necessary or even desired.

Or the journey so far has changed your idea of exactly where you want to end up. Every experience or stop along the way will change you in some way. It is important to acknowledge that and accept those changes so that you can re-evaluate where you want to end up. If you simply keep your head down and stick to that original map you will stand a good chance of getting to the original goal but when you get there you may find it’s not where you really want to be. So at each stop take stock of what you have just experienced and allow yourself to rethink what you want to do next in light of whatever new knowledge or information you have gained.

Suppose you wanted to be a sports broadcaster and you start out on that journey but on one of the stops you realize it isn’t really the being on camera or behind the microphone that you really like. It’s making the whole experience happen that is what excites you and you decide you want to be a producer instead. From where you started you probably couldn’t see that possibility clearly because you didn’t know enough about how sports get on TV in the first place. Once you gain more information you can see how things are really done and make a more advised decision. It probably won’t be the last time you do this along the way either.

Understanding that change is constant and that everything you do changes you and your point of view is key to not getting lost in that certainty of I know what I want.