Do You Know Where You Are? - Grasshopper

You may have answered that question with, “between a rock and a hard place,” but that’s a pretty metaphorical answer, and not useful in getting where you want to go.

In order to increase the odds of getting to your destination, a sure bet is to know where you are now.

 

There’s an old joke about a man asking for directions and the answer he gets is, “you can’t get there from here.”

 

You can’t get to the future with yesterday’s maps. They show you where you were, not where you are now. Reminds me of a story I’ve told more than once . . .

 

Years ago, I was lamenting to my friend that I was offered a new job after being out of work for a while. I said, “The pay is a lot less than I was making.” His answer was profound. He said, “It’s more than you’re making now.”

 

I hadn’t taken stock of where I was, only where I’d been.

 

Too much attention is given to the past when planning for the future. It’s productive to visit the past to find out the stumbling blocks you’ve tripped over before to avoid doing so again, but to stay there much longer insures what the hippie generation called a “bad trip.”

I wrote about a 2-step therapy model in my book INTER RUPTION: The Magic Key To Lasting Change offered by William O’Hanlon author and trainer of Ericksonian Hypnosis. He has two questions he asks a client:

1.     What concerns you?

2.     What do you long for?

He doesn’t dwell on how they got to be this way; his focus is where they are now and where do they want to be.

You cannot accurately triangulate from a false position. If you try and move forward from a place where you’re not, you’re not going to “go places.”

Honestly assess where you are at the moment, not where you think you ought to be, or where you tell others you are. A nice long look into life’s mirror will tell you your exact location. Your current situation reflects where you truly are.

It’s a lot easier to get where you’re going if you know where you are. If you really don’t know where you are, pretend you’re climbing Mt. Everest and thick fog has surrounded you. To find out your location on the mountain, ask a Sherpa; they know.

Ask someone who’s been in your shoes and find out what they did to move forward, then, emulate it. Or, find a counselor who can help pinpoint where you are and assist you in building a bridge to where you want to be.

In the age of GPS (global positioning system), it’s easy to find out your exact position. Just quit deceiving yourself and others about your current location. Then and only then will you be able to successfully chart a course forward.

All the best,

John