6 Steps: Getting to Your Goals

Successfully Navigating the Route to Achieve your Objectives in Life

There are many tools nowadays to help you navigate on board a boat so that you reach your destination safely and smoothly. But it isn’t always (or usually) as easy as plotting and following the rhumb line (a direct course line) from point A to point B. There are obvious obstacles that can stand in the way and must be avoided, like islands, rocks, and reefs. You can plan a route around these. But other influences will impact your voyage as well, and they aren’t always things you will know about ahead of time. There are things like weather conditions, waves and prevailing currents, all of which can set you far off course if you don’t compensate and take care to correct for them. Then you might encounter totally unexpected obstacles such as submerged cargo containers adrift, whales sleeping at the water’s surface or debris floating in the water. All of these factors need to be dealt with if and when they occur. It’s possible for any of them to set you seriously (or permanently) off course unless emergency procedures are in place and immediate action is taken. The skipper and crew need to be prepared, alert, calm and ready to respond in order to continue safely on the journey. As with sailing, it’s very easy to get off course in life and there are many influences to be dealt with. Like ships, we constantly need to make navigational plans and corrections on the path to our goals to avoid known and unexpected challenges, and so we arrive safely at our desired destinations whether they be short-term objectives or life-long ambitions.

So how do we successfully prepare and proceed in this journey of navigating to our life goals? How many of us have unattained aspirations or New Year’s resolutions that have fallen by the wayside as we allow ourselves to focus on the immediacies of life? First, as with any sailing passage, you need to be clear about some basic things…

• Position: Current location where you are starting out from
• Purpose: Destination location and goal, where you ultimately want to arrive
• Path: The plan and route; desired stops and waypoints to your destination
• Preparation: Everything needed to get ready for the journey
• Provisioning: The supplies you’ll need for the passage
• Procedures: Practices on board and along the way

Savvy Sailing Girl has identified these six P’s of Passage, and finds them to be a good set of steps to follow in navigating the passages of your own joyful and meaningful life journey…

Position

In life, it’s not always as easy to assess your starting and desired end points as it is on a sailboat and using navigational aids and charts. But the principles are essentially the same… look at the “map” of your life at this moment and then set a general path in the direction you want to go. This could be a life-long goal, one leg or several steps along the route of life. Only plot a course as far as a destination that you know is in the right direction… and, you can always “tack” if circumstances or desires change.

So, where are you currently?
What feels good in your life and what doesn’t?
What are you happy with, what do you want more of, and what do you want to reduce or eliminate completely?

Look at every aspect of your inner and outer world… make lists and prioritize how important each item is on its own and then compared to every other item on your list. This will help you sort and prioritize. You can do everything you want on your list, you just can’t do it all at once.

Purpose

Once we determine what doesn’t feel good and isn’t working in our lives, which are all indicators of where we’re starting off from, we need to define what would we want and what that might look like. Take the list and now add (on a scale of “very easy-easy-medium-hard-very hard” or 1-5) how hard it would be to accomplish each item and how probable it is that you would be able to accomplish this. We can then figure out how far away from our goal we are by assessing the distance between the starting and destination points. That distance can be emotional, mental, financial/career, state of relationships, health, spirituality or situational/obligations. It is basically a matter of determining what needs to change in order to plan the appropriate course, set sail from your starting point, navigate the path and arrive safely at the harbor of your desired destination. Okay, easier said than done in some cases, but the purpose of your voyage needs to be clarified. If you don’t know where you’re going or how far it is, you’ll be forever off course or remain stuck in your current port indefinitely. Start with smaller “bite-sized” goals… sailors don’t cross oceans before they’ve learned to successfully navigate shorter distances and less turbulent waters.

Path

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. – Mark Twain

You have complete power over the details of your life the moment you decide you’re going to be an active participant in creating that life experience – a deliberate co-creator. That decision is manifest in tangible behaviors, like getting out of debt, fixing or removing troubled relationships, and saying no to activities that are nothing more than a waste of your time.

You get to decide right now. Where do you want to go and how do you want to get there?

Your purpose is your reason for achieving what you want, and this can be life purpose or short-term goal. The what is how it is manifested, and can happen in a ton of different ways. For example, Savvy Sailing Girl’s current why is to inspire people to forge their own joyful life adventure and to help them pursue and achieve their goals. Her what is sharing information and her own journeys on the Savvy Sailing Girl website. But it could be any number of other ways as well… coaching, mentoring, teaching, etc.

Too many people think creating a vision is about nailing down exactly what they want in the next 5, 10, or 20 years. The problem with this longer-term approach to goal setting is that you may not know what you want that far out and it actually slows your progress and potential. Do you want to quit work and sail around the world? Um, 10 years ago Savvy Sailing Girl didn’t see that as her goal. She loved sailing and her first goal was to do some consulting projects and then do some sailing in between. But a funny thing happened along the way… small goals were accomplished, opportunities broadened, desires expanded, and with a few “tacks” and sail adjustments, SSG was a full-time liveaboard.  

Instead of having a preset plan of what you want to do (unless you seriously know what you want to do), try this… Remember the kid’s game “Hot and Cold”? An object is hidden by one player and the others need to hunt for it. They are provided with clues of only “warm/hot/hotter/boiling” or “cool/cold/colder/freezing” depending on whether they are getting closer or further from the object and to what degree. Sometimes in life, that’s how we need to seek our goals… are we getting warmer or cooler – closer or further away? You can tell by whether something feels better or worse. So, there’s no point in making long-term plans if you’re not sure where you want to go. Tack along your course step by step and just make sure you’re always following the best-feeling direction… you never know where the winds will carry you.

Most people don’t purposefully and relentlessly invest in their futures… finances, relationships, health, learning and meaningful use of time. But when you invest in yourself and your future, your life will continue getting better and more in alignment with your ideal vision.

Imagine the possibilities – Expect the best – Trust the journey

This is one of Savvy Sailing Girl’s mantras. Envision possibilities rather than investing in and expecting a particular outcome. Be confident that the best possible outcome will ensue. Put your thoughts and beliefs, words, intentions and actions behind your desires. Then, trust the journey as much as the destination. This is how you create and contribute beyond anything you could ever comprehend.

Preparation

Again, continuing with the sailing analogy, once you’ve figured out the starting point, the route, and the destination, you’ll need to get ready to go. There are many things you do on board to get ready and they apply equally to your life journey… organize and plan for the trip. Getting organized and streamlined will help you figure out what you have and what you need – the right supplies, provisions, and tools for health, safety, maintenance, and repairs.

Organize

Life is busy. It’s hard to keep everything organized and tidy on a boat with limited space, and even more so in life. But moving forward will require far less energy if you remove the excessive baggage and tension that “life clutter” imposes. Everything in your life is energy. If you’re carrying too heavy a load, either physically or emotionally, your progress will be hampered.

To help people be more productive, time-management courses often teach that it is essential to identify things that are important versus things that are urgent. Most people spend their life prioritizing urgent (immediate) activities such as answering emails, running errands, and day-to-day stuff. Very few people have organized their lives to prioritize the things that they consider the most important activities like health, relationships, goals, travel, and learning.

You need to be a good steward of resources in your life, and time is at the top of the list. You need to take care of the important things first and fit in the urgent things as you have time. Though urgent, are those things really THAT important to risk sacrificing your health or reaching your goals?

So how do you organize your life to get ready for the journey? Look at every aspect of your life and you will find things that need to be cleaned up, paid up, shaped up, or freed up. You get the picture…

SSG – Organize Your Life

Getting organized and conscious of your present circumstances (e.g., your environment, finances, relationships, purpose, and time) puts you in a position to sail off and build toward the future you want. The fastest way to move forward in life is not doing more. It starts with stopping the behaviors holding you back.

If you want to get in shape, you’ll make more progress by stopping your negative behaviors than starting good ones. So, before you start exercising, purge the junk food from your diet.

Before you focus on making more money, reduce your spending. Detach yourself from needing more and become content with what you have. Until you do this, it doesn’t matter how much money you make. You’ll always spend what you have (or more).

This is a matter of stewardship – being a good steward of all your precious resources. Rather than wanting more, more, more, it’s key to take proper care of what you currently have.

Supplies So, you’ve organized and streamlined and taken inventory of your life in all areas. What will you need along this journey that you don’t already have…

Do you need more financial resources?
Do you need to learn new skills?
What tools will help you? What supplies?
What provisions do you need to carry on this voyage?

Make lists. How will you attain what’s needed? What needs to happen in order to have what’s required for the journey to be successful? Make these a step along the journey.

Procedures

Then off we go! We’ve headed out of the harbor, we have the required resources, and we’re on our way.

Track Progress

So, what do sailors do along the way to make sure they are heading in the right direction?… they track progress. They mark the charts with positions often so they stay on course. In life, many people miss this critical step and don’t measure important metrics. It’s an important thing to do, not only to make sure you’re heading in the right direction, but that you are making forward progress. Your boat may be pointing towards your goal, but if there’s sufficient current and contrary wind, your net progress may be away from your destination… a hard thing to see if you are just looking forward but not measuring progress.

If you’re not tracking the key areas of your life, then you don’t know your position and you’re likely more off course than you think. Track the things that are closely related to your core priorities and purpose. Again, your priorities and purpose reflect the why of your journey.

Your life should be built around your priorities, not the other way around. If you’re serious about improving your life and reaching your goals, track your priorities and your progress. For example, track your expenses, your health, and how you spend time each day. Whatever priorities you choose to track, your conscious awareness of these things will increase. Your ability to control these things will be enhanced, and your confidence will strengthen.

One hand for the boat and one hand for you

There’s a saying that goes, “one hand for the boat and one hand for you”. This means that no matter what you are doing to sail and keep the boat safe, you need to keep yourself safe as well. The same goes for moving towards your goals. You need to make sure that you are taking care of yourself and not sacrificing some critical areas of well-being in order to achieve something else.

Make sure you are nourishing body, mind, and spirit… take time to meditate or pray in whatever way you choose, think positive thoughts and live in appreciation.

Your thoughts and beliefs, words and actions are incredibly powerful. They actually govern not only you but also those around you. If you think positively about the people you’re around, their lives are better. This is why people “send positive energy” or pray for other people. It actually makes a difference. Your thoughts (which are energy) create endless ripples – even waves – of consequence all around you.

While reflecting or meditating for a segment of time, the level of your thoughts will elevate. And interesting things will begin happening!

Move Toward Your Goals Every Single Day

Underway, you keep moving… for longer passages you sail 24 hours a day every single day. But on land, life is busy. How many days go by where you did nothing to move toward your big goals? Probably too many. It’s easy to lose sight of the important things when the urgent ones pile up.

If you don’t purposefully carve time out every day to progress and improve, then without question, your time will get lost in the vacuum of our increasingly crowded lives. Before you know it, you’ll be wondering where all that time went.

So, make your mantra: The worst comes first. Do that thing you’ve been needing to do. Then do it again tomorrow. If you take just one step toward your big goals every day, you’ll realize those goals weren’t really far away.

We can ensure we get where we want to in life by understanding where we are currently and what our desired destination is, then organizing ourselves, planning for our future, tracking our progress, correcting course along the way and tacking if necessary, and then enjoying the journey to our destination and goals.