(True) North Star

“Just as a compass always points to true north, your heart will recognize true principles.” Sean Covey

The phrase “discover your true north” was coined by Bill George in his bestselling book by the same name. George explained that discovering your true north is about following your internal compass: just as a compass points at a fixed point on the globe, your personal true north helps you stay on track to become the best person you can be throughout your reinvention journey.

When you find your true north, you begin to understand what really makes you tick and what you value as a person – because your values matter. They are your North Star. And your life will take on new meaning when you feel you’re pointed in the right direction and can align your behavior with what you value the most.

“You are not stuck. You’re just committed to certain patterns of behavior because they helped you in the past. Now those behaviors have become more harmful than helpful. The reason you can’t move forward is because you keep applying an old formula to a new level in your life. Change the formula to get a different result.” Emily Maroutian

Do you ever wonder why you experience the same situation or types of people in your life over and over, often with the same negative results or unwanted outcomes? Perhaps it’s because you repeat the same behaviors during each encounter. To change the experience, you must change those habits and behaviors that created the narrative and direction of your life so far.

Your behaviors – how you think, react, respond, etc. – all have patterns, and sometimes those patterns can help you to grow if you are in search of a new direction in your life. Patterns can tell you to try something new, fix something, or remove something from your life. Identifying the repeated patterns in your life will help you determine your current position; see what lies ahead; and change your course and direction to achieve a new outcome or arrive at a new destination.

But where to begin? By completing what I call a “Life Navigation Chart.”

The Life Navigation Chart is a visual encapsulation of how you interact and engage with the world and with others; your responses and behaviors integral to these engagements; and, most importantly, the results and outcomes of those behaviors. As you create your chart, you focus on the experiences of any significance that have the potential to teach you about yourself and your deeply held views. Ultimately, the goal is to identify repeated patterns of behavior in order to make a conscious effort to change the way you interact with others and the world around you.

Most importantly, you’ll feel empowered, not victimized; become free of your bonds to painful experiences, situations, relationships, or events; and your future will no longer be charted by your past.

“True North of Your Soul” indeed!

The Life Navigation Chart has three components:

1. A “Purpose Statement,” in which you define your goals and objectives for completing the chart as well as your desired outcomes.
2. A list of the significant experiences you’ve had in the past in which you exhibited behaviors that resulted in outcomes that did not align with your values.
3. A “course correction” in which you identify any repeated patterns of behaviors in your significant experiences and then determine what you can do differently in order to change the behavior and its outcome.

“The way to find your own North Star is not to think or feel your way forward but to dissolve the thoughts and feelings that make you miserable. You don’t have to learn your destiny – you already know it; you just have to unlearn the thoughts that blind you to what you know. Martha Beck