Direction Needs Motion Because Goals Are Moving Targets

Seems like a lot of folks are looking for a new direction these days.
More and more unintentional entrepreneurs are trying to find their way through an ocean of choices.
Too many choices, though, can be worse than too few.
Faced with, apparently, an infinite variety of options for the future, paralysis sets in; our hero or heroine feels rudderless, trying to decide which direction to go.
But it's not a rudder they're missing.
It's motion.
Goals are rarely set in stone.
What's important, even vital, for your business today, isn't necessarily so tomorrow, and almost certainly won't be next year.
We have to achieve the paradox of investing mentally, physically and emotionally in a goal as if it were eternal, while recognizing that it may cease to have value, even before it's fully achieved.
It will most certainly stop being a goal once it's achieved-after all, it makes no sense to chase something you're holding in your hand.
It's human nature to want the security of a road map.
We want a step-by-step procedure to get from where we are to that clear destination over there.
That's not how goals work.
Reaching goals isn't so much like taking a road trip; it's more like crossing the ocean in a sailboat.
A sailboat is a fine thing, even sitting at the dock.
But sitting at docks is not what they're designed for; they're designed to use the wind to push against the waves and, between the two opposing forces, create forward motion.
And now, once the sailboat is under way, the rudder starts working.
As you move across the water, a number of forces affect your direction.
Currents in the water, the force and direction of the wind, the shape of the boat's hull, even the distribution of people and things inside the boat, all make it impossible to simply aim at the goal, hold a steady course over some period of time, and arrive at your destination.
You can sit at the dock 'til the cowfish come home, swinging the rudder from side to side, and you'll never find direction.
It's only in movement that we can measure our progress against any kind of standards to see if we're heading somewhere we want to go.
Feeling rudderless? Get away from the dock.
Head, first, into the safety of a nearby harbor.
Check out your rigging and stock the galley with supplies.
Do what you reasonably can to prepare for the journey.
And then go.
'Away from the dock' is automatically 'toward something new.
' Keep one eye on the compass to see where you're heading, and one on the horizon, to see where you want to go.
And now, now that you're moving, you'll find direction.