Follow Your Compass!

It's a difficult time for many out there. The winds of change are blowing hard. This means that the landscape has changed. It reminds of listening to Steve Donahue in Puerto Rico last year. Although his message was serious and right on the money in this day and age, he delivered it in a humorous way. This in itself is a great thing because the mind takes in more information when it's relaxed. In fact, tests have shown that people can endure more pain or discomfort while laughing (ref. http://www.reference-global.com/doi/abs/10.1515/humr.1993.6.1.71).
Steve is a man who has crossed the Sahara and has an amazing story to tell. His point was that in the Sahara, what good is a map? Let's put the Sahara Dessert in to context, it is roughly the size of the United States but is completely sand and dunes, with the exception of the odd oasis. It would be like travelling from Canada to Mexico on foot (or camel). (If you want an interesting perspective of how the world looks according to land mass http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa030201a.htm). He asked us what use is a map when a sand storm blows and changes the scenery, what use is a map then? That third large dune straight ahead where you were going to take a left is gone! And the winds of change have certainly changed this social and financial landscape of this planet. Let's face it, jobs that are going now will not be replaced. There is no need for them nor will there be. (See Robert Kiyosaki's book, The Cashflow Quadrant) So what now? How do I equip myself for this journey of life now that the map I had is redundant?
Well, there one thing that is constant in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres and that is true North. It's the heading that any compass will give you and it's constant in any terrain. So let's take a compass heading in our lives, one of our own choosing, by which to guide ourselves. Let it be three of four words in length and let it guide your actions. Mine is "Make a difference". So any act I do, whether great or small, I am guided by this compass setting. Whether it's picking up a piece of rubbish on the footpath/sidewalk so that the environment is just one bit cleaner, whether I pick up my socks off the floor so I don't annoy my wife, or whether I go out and raise thousands for the charity of my choice, I make a difference. My passing through will have made a difference. And my destination is "A life of luxury and wealth that I can share", after all, as a wise man once told me, the best way to help the poor is to not be one of them.
So now I am armed with a compass heading and a destination of my own choosing. I know where I'm going and I'll know when I have arrived. And like any journey it takes ACTION! If I do not move towards my goal, my goal will move away from me because the Universe is in constant motion and me with it. So regardless of how things look now, if I follow my compass and take the actions necessary to be in alignment with my compass heading, I will reach my destination. The terrain may shift and change, there will be obstacles, there will be times of great high and great low, let's not kid ourselves. But if I can hold my course and be true to my destination then I will have comfort and excitement as I go. As Darwin pointed out "In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment." Our actions may include learning new skills, we may have to take a look at how we define ourselves (I ama a banker, I am a mechanic, etc... (this is not who you are this what you do)) but as long as we follow our compass heading, we know, with every degree of certainty, that we are on the right path.
So take the time to create you compass heading and take the time to think and write down your destination. These should never change. And at each oasis, stop, refuel, check your heading and recognise how far you've come from where you started. And here's a tip: you may meet someone at the oasis who has done the journey you are taking... so ask questions!