“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” John F. Kennedy
Wrong Maps = Wrong Destinations
Leaders can only be effective when they know where they are going.
1. If we don’t know where we are going any map will do.
One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.
“Which road do I take?” she asked. His response was a question: “Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t know,” Alice answered. “Then,” said the cat, it doesn’t matter.”
“Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll
2. Whose maps are you following, and why? (Advertising, Parents, Friends, Spouses, Boss, Neighbors, etc)
You have been given many maps throughout your life and the world is trying to give you new maps every day. Only you can decide if any of the maps are leading you to where you want to go. And you can only decide that if you first know where you want to go.
3. How many different maps are you following at the same time?
Many times our different destinations are pulling us in different directions. You can’t realistically and effectively go in different directions at the same time. And yet most of us are pursuing multiple maps at the same time and wonder why it takes so much effort and energy to go nowhere fast. It is exhausting trying to go in multiple directions at the same time, not to mention impossible.
4. Are you focused on improving your attitudes and actions without knowing your destination?
If you work really hard and develop the correct attitudes and the correct behaviors but still have the wrong maps, then you will still end up in the wrong place. Correct attitudes and behaviors can only be truly effective when we first have determined the correct destination and secondly developed the correct maps that will lead us to that destination.
“Each of us has many, many maps in our head, which can be divided into two main categories: maps of the way things are, or realities, and maps of the way things should be, or values. We interpret everything we experience through these mental maps. We seldom question their accuracy; we’re usually even unaware that we have them. We simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be.
And our attitudes and behaviors grow out of those assumptions. The way we see things is the source of the way we think and the way we act.” Stephen R. Covey, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”
81. Take a moment to record all of the different things you are currently trying to achieve, pursue, acquire-
82. How are your different goals pulling you in different directions and consuming your limited resources of time, money and talents?
“One might as well try to ride two horses moving in different directions, as to try to maintain in equal force two opposing or contradictory sets of desires.” Robert Collier
