Recently, I was getting in the car to go somewhere where I had never been before, so I did what I always do- I put my destination into my phone’s GPS. A map came up, I had some options, and I chose the one that seemed like the best fit. Shortest amount of time, major highways instead of backroads, all that good stuff.
As I “proceeded to the route,” I had a lot of different thoughts pop into my head:
- Yeah, yeah, I know how to get out of my neighborhood. Thanks for that.
- You want me to do to what?
- There is no way that I am going to be able to make a left here. I’m going right, and we’ll see what happens.
- Turn right, what do you mean turn right?! There is no turn there. Oh, yeah, there it was. I just passed it.
What also occurred to me was that this GPS navigation was very much like life- I knew where I wanted to end up, but I wasn’t totally sure how to get there. Not only that, but there were parts of the trip that were easy and seemed obvious and other parts that were confusing, if not impossible, to follow. But, throughout the whole trip, I just had to trust that my destination was correct.
But, what if I hadn’t known my destination?
For me, there have definitely been times in life when it felt as easy as getting out of my neighborhood. But there were other times that felt like wrong turn after wrong turn, and I just had to trust that I would end up in the right spot.
To me, what I do for people in giving ability assessments is like helping them to pinpoint their destination. Sure, that destination might change at some point, but we all go different places at different times. And at least you aren’t left feeling like you have no direction at all.
