The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a modern marvel. The fact that we can plug a location into our phone and get turn-by-turn directions to our desired end-point is amazing. The system helps scientists studying the movement of the earth, the military keeping our country safe, and even farmers planting and harvesting more efficiently.
GPS uses a network of satellites to precisely pinpoint your physical location on the earth’s surface by using signals between themselves and a receiver, like your phone.
We need to use our own personal satellites to determine where we are so that we can successfully make our journey through life and live to the fullest. How do we do that?
Each of us has our own three satellites that we can use to determine where we are. They are:
- Personal Mission,
- Personal Values, and
- Personal Habits.
Each one of these satellites work together to help us determine where we are and where we are going.
Personal Mission
Your personal mission first provides the meaning behind your destination. Your mission is much larger than a goal. A goal has a defined ending point. You know when you’ve gotten there with a goal. On the flip side your mission is the meaning behind the goal and it doesn’t have a beginning or ending.
Your mission serves as a major GPS satellite in helping you determine not only where you are but where you want to go. You are a leader. A leader of yourself, your family, you spouse, your friends, or your co-workers. Knowing your mission concentrates your effort on what you need to be doing and becoming instead of wasting time on unnecessary detours.
Personal Values
The second satellite we need to pinpoint our location is our personal values. Values or principles are how you do things, your operating system for performing the activities and tasks that you have to get done.
When we identify and prioritize our core values we can use them to make decisions quicker and easier. We can know if the actions we are taking will move us closer to fulfilling our mission or farther away. We can decide if the habits we’re forming are how we want to live our life. You will be able to use them to make yourself accountable to your actions and to measure your progress.
Personal Habits
The third satellite is our personal habits. Your habits, rituals, and routines determine what you do. You’re where you are because of what you’ve done in small, tiny, seemingly insignificant behaviors. Your success is dependent upon intentionally changing your habits and building the changed behavior until it becomes automatic. Then through daily repetition of those positive habits you can fulfill your personal mission.
Changing habits is hard work. You take a routine that you aren’t currently thinking about and focus on it. That takes energy. That takes effort. But it can be done. As John C. Maxwell observed, “Habits aren’t instincts; they’re acquired actions or reactions.” And if you choose certain behaviors to change then it makes others easier to change.
The bottom line is that if you want to know where you’re at you have to look at your habits. You must be willing to exchange your unproductive, careless, lackadaisical habits for productive, thoughtful, passionate ones. Only by changing what you do will you change where you are.
Using these three satellites help you determine where you’re at in life. What is your mission, values and habits that tell you where you are?