“Where you are going depends on where you are.” So said The Grasshopper early this morning.

My experience is that the ability to get to where you are going has a lot to do with knowing your current location.

“How do I get to Cincinnati? is a lot easier to answer if you know you are in Louisville.

If you don’t know your current location, it’s a crap shoot as to whether you’ll ever get to where you want to go.

“Where am I now?” is a question we rarely ask ourselves. And if we do, we often make up an answer, making it doubly difficult to get to our desired destination.

An honest assessment of where we are now makes triangulation much more precise and makes the path we have to travel crystal clear.

The difficulty is that we don’t want to see the clear path because we know it’s ladened with work. That “burden” keeps us from pinpointing where we are. We continue to BS ourselves that we’re somewhere where we’re not, and we stay willfully lost.

We are so steeped in magical thinking that we miss seeing the landmarks of where we are. The magical thinking is that we will get to where we want to go without having to put in the effort.

I love learning shortcuts but if that’s all I depend on then I’ll come up short, and so will you.

Where you want to go has to be more than a wish to get you to find your true starting point. Your destination has to be fueled by the passion to do whatever is necessary to get there.

If your desired destination is not compelling, you’ll remain where you are dwelling – pretending you’re somewhere where you’re not.

The three keys to making this trip happen are:

1. Have a compelling idea of where you want to go.

2. Find out where you are now.

3. Be willing to do the work.

Regarding the passion part of this formula, this old adage comes to mind: “Find a big enough ‘Why’ and the ‘How’ will take care of itself.”

Where am I now? If you don’t pursue the answer to that question, your pursuits will remain a pipe dream.

All the best,

John