Time to throw out the map in your professional journey

Newsflash - there is no map for the Undiluted path. Even if you think you're holding onto one, it is the map of someone's past journey and that doesn't get you very far. We're conditioned early on in our childhood, to seek safety, certainty and predictability. It's not wrong or right. It's how a child develops through the safety of routine, as they explore and expand their mindset with certain safe boundaries in place. Somewhere along the way, it became more difficult to fail. Maybe in schools, you had to had a structured way to think of "creative writing" or only one answer or formula to a particular question. In the business environment, it became competitive and failure or mistakes put you in the comparison with those you compete with.

The map is an illusion. It tricks you to believing that there is a known path.

Hence, safety, certainty and predictability became the name of the game. We've also learnt immensely from the giants that came before us so what better way then to take the maps they have carved out in their journey. The "top 5 tips successful CEOs do every morning" or "this is what xxx (insert someone who achieved an accolade in your field) did to get there" are tempting maps. If you get hold of that map, your brain just needs to follow the steps like a manual. Step 1 - step 2 - step 3 and so on. A guaranteed way to succeed right?

First up, succeed in what? If it's to be able to follow a given path to the T, and that is a barometer of success, then yes. If success to you is defined by being fulfilled in what you create and contribute to the world, create meaning and/or touch lives within your inner or wider circles, then that map will not get you there.

If success to you is defined by being fulfilled in what you create and contribute to the world, create meaning and/or touch lives within your inner or wider circles, then that map will not get you there.

The map is an illusion. It tricks you to believing that there is a known path. You know the people who created those maps? They created them. There was no paths before them, and in that very process of their journey lay the very magic that they set out to create. They can't know the terrain you have.

So where does that leave you? Throw the map away, it was never yours to begin with. Get your compass out. The compass that will guide you with your values, your desires and your own intentions of how you want to take the next step. You be the master or mistress of your compass, while you let it guide you as you decide the next step to take. And the next step.

You can take heed of their lessons and past as a gauge, but this is your own path.

We talk about creating, innovating, exploring and dreaming up ideas. We talk about leading teams into situations that they have not always had the privilege of weathering, and coming out victoriously. We talk about showing up fully and living full lives of our own and in leadership. Well, we actually go through these journeys by understanding that there is uncertainty and unpredictability, probably even things that seem to go in the wrong, but the compass gives you your own guiding light posts .

You can't create or explore from something that has already been drawn up. You can take heed of their lessons and past as a gauge, but this is your own path. The compass might even sometimes tell you to go in a direction that someone (seemingly) has failed previously in. With a map, you would have steered clear of the terrain. With the compass, you step surely in that direction. Maybe the project couldn't function with the past manager but you were type of manager to see the blind spots quickly. Maybe the business idea was in a different environment, but you gave a different flavour to it that brings it the support it needs to become profitable.

Living and leading from the Undiluted path is probably not for the faint-hearted. But you are here on this ride with me because I know you understand this is what an impactful professional journey and leadership path is truly about - of exploration, expansion and creation.

Now that we are at this point, so, what is your compass made of?

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Welcome to my journey and the stories I have lined up for you. And if that transforms your office, the people, your business just a little bit, I am grateful. Welcome to Undiluted.

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