The North Star: Finding Your Direction

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Have you ever felt like you are going in circles, unable to find the way forward, and stumbling over ground you covered before??

If you’ve ever been lost in the wilderness, you may be familiar with this experience, and you’re not alone. In a 2009 study by the Max Planck Institute, they found that without reliable cues for their walking direction (such as the sun or stars), people really do walk in circles.?

One explanation was that people may favour one leg or the other due to differences in leg length or strength, but the study found that the same person sometimes veered to the left and sometimes to the right, disproving that theory.?

According to one of the leaders of the study, Jan Souman, “Small random errors in the various sensory signals that provide information about walking direction add up over time, making what a person perceives to be straight ahead drift away from the true straight ahead direction.”

This is why it is crucial to have a North Star to guide you.?

Think about the journey that you have mapped out for your future. Without a North Star, you could spend the next few years walking in circles, wondering why you aren’t making any progress.?

A vivid vision, based on your values, allows you to make progress every day. Progress motivates us and inspires those around us to follow our path and support our mission.?

Progress can only be achieved long term in your life with a guiding North Star, a vision that shapes your identity, actions, and decisions daily.?

For a long time, my North Star was to create so much value for others that I could afford a great home for my family to grow up in, surrounded by nature, in a safe community.

One day, I reached my goal. I sat in our new home, looking out over our garden, and felt delighted…and lost. During the following weeks, my motivation dropped as I seemed to walk in circles. I was unsure what to do next. Then I had an epiphany. I had been on a journey of lifting my family to a wonderful place and succeeded, and now I had reached a place where I was ready to go beyond our core unit and lift others as well.?

My focus then shifted to lift as many people as I could through my work, with a North Star that my legacy would be to make other people’s lives better in every way I could.

How do you create your own North Star?

To create your North Star, you need to write it down using emotive and descriptive language. Don’t rush this! Take your time and enjoy it.?

Before you do the following exercises, I encourage you to close your eyes for a few minutes and think back over the last 10 years of your life. This will help you contemplate how vast 10 years can be—so much can be experienced, overcome, and achieved in that time.?

How old were you 10 years ago? What were you doing? What challenges were you facing??

Then reflect on your personal values. Who are you at your core? If you live from your values for the next 10 years, what impact could you make? If you allow yourself to dream big, what could be possible for you??

Your challenge for the week:

Take the time to answer the following questions:

• What would you love to experience in your life 10 years from now?
• If you had a magic wand, how would life be better for yourself, others, and the world?
• How will you feel if you create this future? What will it mean to you?

Do you feel excited about this future? If not, rewrite it with greater positivity, passion, and emotive language. Your goal is to light up your emotional mind. Don’t get stuck in logic—we’ll deal with that part later. Write it again until you feel thrilled with it. Then, let your North Star guide your way.?

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