Current Course
There is an easy way to test your thoughts about whether you are on the right course in life or not. As usual, the counter-intuitive process to decide if you are on the correct path involves one question but it’s not one we are taught to ask. We are pressured in many ways to find a purpose, or work with purpose or live with purpose. It seems to be super important based on how many times it shows up in articles about how to have a good life. Since we are not taught how to develop our purpose, the life course question becomes essential.
Location, Location, Location
Our current location affects our life many ways. Not only does it provide the environmental background, it determines how we spend our money, care for our health and can sometimes extend to raising or lowering our opportunities to create financial security. Our ‘where’ can be chosen by default early in life and can be compromised by familial needs. Most of us don’t place choosing where to live as the most important factor in life. But it should be a consideration due to its ability to affect every other part of our lives. If you feel stuck in a place, it is a great sign that something needs attention. When your skin feels itchy, listen to your physical symptoms. If you really want to beat your boredom, start to think about how your location contributes to your future.
Course of Action
The question you need to ponder is whether your current course of action is going to get you where you want to be. Of course, this question requires you to at least think about your destination. The really great part of this equation is deciding on the end point. This is the GPS scenario. When you get in your car and turn on the GPS, you expect it to show you how to get somewhere. If there is no location added to reach, you go nowhere. Literally, all you need to do is to start and take off with anywhere as your next stopping point and you will get directions. Taking off is the actual action that has the most impact. The hardest part of checking your course is to get going. You will learn so much by just seeing what happens when you begin your journey.
Course of Learning
Counter-intuitively, if you look behind the action of finding out if your course of action is going to get you to a finish line, you will see the hidden reason you really choose a course. The skills you accidently learn while thinking about your current course opens up your mind to take note of what your location and your focus do to move you along a path you didn’t even take notice of previously. Oftentimes, the side effects of a question provide answers you didn’t even know you needed. It is the surprising nature of inquiry. As a toddler, we loved to ask questions. Once we thought we established a base of knowledge, we asked less. If you can absorb the fact that questions have many levels of answers instead of one concrete one, you have realized the best lesson of all.
Do you feel as if you are on a course of action? Can you pick something as an endpoint and just see what the road teaches you? Are you open to looking behind what a question can show you?
