Navigation

The process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a vehicle from one place to another involves gathering information, evaluating it, and making decisions based on that information.

Do you have a destination you want to reach but no route planned out? On the water, as in life, you can’t get there properly without navigation. What does this mean? Let’s break it down: I want to go to my favorite summer spot, Watch Hill, RI. It’s an easy and quick trip for us, and once there, we’re surrounded by natural beauty, a quaint town, fabulous restaurants, and a protected anchorage. What’s not to love about that? But to get there, we have to face navigational challenges. On a sailboat like ours, you have to mind the tides. You have a window to get through.

If we were to just pick up and go, we would most likely run aground. This is true in all areas of life—getting somewhere quickly can lead to an unexpected halt.

Why am I speaking about this now? Because I’m ready to drop sail after a couple of years navigating a new career, and I’ve been reflecting on my journey to get here. After years of working with individuals in the nonprofit sector, I decided to take what I loved about my career—guiding people to make successful choices—and parlay it into my own business as a Life Coach. It took some time to get to this destination. It required reflection, education, planning, and advice from those who had set out on a similar voyage. I took the measured, careful route, and even then, the winds shifted at times, requiring me to readjust.

I’m sure you’ve been there too. Maybe it wasn’t career-related but instead a new relationship, your physical fitness, or an extensive project you’ve dreamed of. You knew where you wanted to go but weren’t quite sure how to get there, so you stayed anchored, waiting for the perfect weather window to appear before setting off. Here’s the thing—there’s never going to be a perfectly smooth course in life. The unexpected will always test our navigational skills. It may take us on a different path or make us want to stay in port because adjusting our personal GPS feels overwhelming. What we can do, though, is keep educating ourselves to navigate life’s journey, reaching each new destination with minimal wear on our vessel. Surround yourself with those who have traveled similar routes before, and heed their advice—as well as those who want to journey alongside you.

Most importantly, take the advice of Franklin D. Roosevelt: “To reach a port, we must set sail—sail, not tie up at anchor; sail, not drift.”