One luxury of flying an airplane is you travel straight to your destination. Barring an obstacle along the route, like restricted airspace or an ornery weather system, you can take the shortest distance between two points—a straight line—to get there fast.
Life on the ground is more problematic, both for travel by car as well as the journey to reach a dream. Rarely is there ever an easy, straight route between two points. However, most experienced drivers wouldn’t question their abilities to get from New York City to Los Angeles by car, even if they’d never made the trip before. They’d consult a map, plan the route, then set out.
So why do many of us question our abilities to reach our dreams? Granted, there isn’t necessarily a roadmap that shows us how to get there, but most of us have a general sense of what we must do, what path we should take to achieve the dream. But that can be a problem. We not only become so fixated on the path we think we should take that we can’t see anything else, including alternate routes when an obstacle blocks us, but we also slow down or even stop because we can’t envision every turn, every fork-in-the-road choice in our head, even if that choice won’t be made until much later.
If I plopped a U.S. map in front of you that had five wildly varied routes highlighted from New York City to Los Angeles, and I only asked, “Which route will get you to your destination?” what would your answer be? Why…all of them, of course. The travel time may vary significantly, and each path holds a different adventure, complete with its own, distinctive scenery, but each route will ultimately lead you to your destination. That is, if you don’t pull over and sit on the side of the road.
But that’s what many people do in the pursuit of their dreams and goals. They pull over, wheels on the curb of life, sitting on the hood of their ambition because they don’t know every turn they must make ahead of time. The gaps or uncertainties in the mental roadmaps to their dreams incapacitate them.
Take our road trip from N.Y.C. to L.A. Suppose we choose the scenic route, avoiding the interstates. Even if we consult a map before starting, can we remember every detail of the vast journey in our head as we drive? No, but we keep moving anyway. Do we pull off the highway and stop every time we’re unsure if we turn left or right 20 miles down the road? No, we keep moving. If the map flies out the window, or the GPS dies, do we pull over and wait for the AAA calvary to bring replacements? No, we keep moving, confident that signs along the way will let us know where to turn until we can take a rest stop and acquire a new map.
Then why do so many try to analyze every turn, mentally debate each potential fork choice before ever starting to move in earnest toward their dreams? Often, it’s because they want to reach their destination as quickly as possible, so they attempt to plan the most direct route. The irony is, they often do nothing because the unknowns overwhelm them. We must recognize this truth: there are multiple routes to reach our dreams and it’s more important to start and keep moving than to know ahead of time the exact path we’ll use to get there.
There’s an old joke with the punch-line, “You can’t get there from here.” It’s usually said as a quip for a route that is difficult. But the reality is, you CAN get there from here, if you keep moving. For those who’d like a semblance of a road map, feel free to jot the following down and carry in your pocket:
1) Hold the end destination in mind
2) Start and keep moving toward it
3) Trust that signs will appear when you need them
4) Realize there are infinite routes to your destination
5) Worry about the details when you get to them, not a moment before
6) Savor the scenery and friends you make along the way
This post was too, too fun. I truly love the way you write and gain much inspiration from it.
I have this quote tucked away because I always loved it, however, I’m afraid I don’t know the author. The message though is lovely and I wanted to share it with you.
“To dream anything that you want to dream. That’s the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do. That is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits. That is the courage to succeed.”
Have a blissfully beautiful weekend!
Thanks to all that commented. C. Herda, Thanks for sharing your story.
Kim, You ask a great question. My answer is, you enlist the help of allies. Check out tomorrow’s post to learn more.
Chris, this is a moving and caring piece. thank you for this. wonderful images and great counsel in the 6 reminders.
if i may be so bold – this got me thinking. what do you do on those days when you just "don’t have it in you" to do 1-6? where do we get our encouragement, our help? more than road signs and maps, the longer journeys (flights) might be best with a companion (a co-pilot.? at the risk of summoning a sappy bumper sticker slogan). or, to draw from another slogan – I can’t, we can.
Chris … another great post … thank you. The suggestions are all terrific, with number three being a key one in my life. ("Trust that signs will appear when you need them") There is a spiritual element of trusting that there are signs out there to help on your way, and that everything will be okay.
Great word pictures. I really appreciate the self evaluating recommendations. These are sure to help simplify the journey.
Great post, it’s something I struggle with from time to time, being so focused on the "right’ route I forget about the destination. Thanks for the reminder!
Chris Laney, your focus on six rules for successfully pursuing your goals are true. I once wanted to get a job which would pay me to travel overseas. It seemed the most important goal of my being up until that point in life. I put all my energy and focus into accomplishing the sometimes ridiculous steps the job hunt required. This was a time period when the government had a freeze on hiring…so the idea of finding a job overseas seemed impossible. At that time I had a mentor who said, keep going…never mind the naysayers.
I jumped thru all the hoops the U.S. State Department set up…passed several skills tests and a physical exam.
At the end of two years, I had sold my house, car, other major items, and put the rest of my household goods in storage prior to setting off on this big adventure. It was grueling. Along the way, my colleagues dropped off the list of candidates to take an overseas assignment. When the offer of an assignment came to me, I was ready for it. With trepidation, I set off with my poodle for the U.S. Embassy in Soul, Korea. Two years later, we headed for the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt and at the end of that two years, we moved to the U.S. Embassy in Bonn, Germany. There were stumbling blocks along the way, but I continued to believe the Angels were with me…and things did work out. Those years were the highlight of my working carer and my life. It helped me to see you need a Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C to actually get to where you are going. This experience gave me confidence for the rest of my life to do other things I dreamed about doing. You have to make your own roadmap for life, and make adjustments along the way.
Cherda @triad.rr.com
Another great one Chris – Good work!!! Definitely something we all struggle with.
Good suggestions and great analogies… "wheels on the curb of life" paints a vivid and really funny picture. So the next time I’m sitting on the hood, radiator steaming and the Swedish Bikini Team’s bus stops to offer a ride, you’re saying I should get on?
Thank you for writing an article that supplies me with the information I need to reach my dream, which is to publish my novel, WHISPERS FROM ST. MARY’S WELL. If I were traveling from NYC to LAX by car, or by bicycle, which seems more like my journey as a writer, I would charge up my navigation system, which recalculates the route iif I get take a wrong turn. In reaching my dream as a writer, I’ve learned to use the same type of navigation system, which includes conferences, workshops, books on technique, and helpful advice, like the ideas I encounter in "Lessons from the Cockpit." Thank you for helping me on the journey to reaching my dream.
You describe a powerful concept. Frankly, it helps me to see I worked too hard at times and got too angry when commands fell on deaf ears. I took the scenic route too often and stumbled around lost……..but, so did Moses. You are absolutely right. Our refusal to give up and keep moving is the only way we will ever glimpse the other side. We can’t wake up to this advice too early in life or apply it too late. Good work!
Hey… this sounds like it’s MY responsibility to reach my dreams versus just having them handed to me on a silver platter. Humph. Not sure I like the direction this blog is taking…
😉