Treating Life Like A GPS

The unfortunate part about holding yourself to a high standard is that you can be really hard on yourself. A mistake is viewed as a setback against what was possible, a change of plans can disrupt efficiency, falling short on a goal can make you feel like you’re not good enough…

We talk about having a growth mindset but it’s one of those things that is really easy to say and much harder to do. I know for myself I’ve often tried to convince myself to see the good, opportunity, and lessons in challenges but in my heart had a hard time believing it. 

I’m proud of how far I’ve come with it, and how much better life is when you can genuinely turn failure into feedback. That’s why I want to share an incredible perspective I learned from my good friend Gregory Benedikt. In his Newsletter last week he talked about treating life like a GPS.

Do you know what a GPS does when you’re driving and you make a wrong turn or miss an exit? It recalculates. Given the information it has at hand, it determines the best path to get to your destination.

It doesn’t shame you or tell you how awful you are… It quickly reroutes you.

Imagine we build that some reflex for ourselves, where rather than being held up by a mistake we just adjust to it? Negative thought spirals and emotion would no longer consume us. We’d just do our best to follow our new path, and execute our new plan.

The main element at play here is detachment. That’s the first layer. If you can successfully separate from the outcome and steward the experience of it, there will be way less resistance when things go awry. 

And if you want to take it one step further like Gregory does in his own way, embrace those changes with curiosity. Reframe them as a great thing to have happened, a blessing you didn’t know you needed, with wonder for what might come from it. 

If you want to learn more about Greg and his work, I’ve got his website linked here where you can sign up for his Newsletter.

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