The point is to know where you are and where to go next

As John Lennon once wrote, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." What he leaves out is that making plans, making choices, is a necessary part of the process (even when they don't work out the way we expect). We have to keep moving as if we know where we are going, even knowing we will also have to course correct as we go.

That's why we need a compass. A compass has four points, but the point of the compass is to allow us to make better choices for our next step. Someone who is not moving does not need a compass. The compass is a tool for people on the move.



What are the points on the compass that guides you through life. The first, your north star, is health and well-being. Movement (even metaphorical movement) requires that we have the energy, strength, flexibility and balance to take the next step. Health of mind and health of body is the power source that drives all our movement.

What we do with that health and well-being has an impact on the world. One word for the impact we make is "work." If health is our true north, then south is work. We work to support our health (in practical ways, by making money or growing the resources we need to stay healthy). And our health allows us not just to respond to the world, but to shape it around us.

But we need a second axis to allow us to move. This one begins with relationships. We are socially wired creatures and relationships are as much as part of us as breath. We use our relationships to maintain well-being and to do work, but we also use them to allow us to do the things that aren't driven by need. T

he fourth point on a life compass is play. Play includes all the things we do just for the impact they have on how we feel and who we are. As we play, we experience ourselves in a way that allows us to feel joy. And we can send both our bigger selves and our joy back into our relationships.

People love charts with four quadrants because they suggest balance and stability. But what we need more is a way to move forward. The four points on a compass help us choose a direction so we can take a next step. And after that step, they allow us to see where we've ended up and course correct.

Because plans don't determine your life. But choices do.

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