Navigating and Creating your Life in the Jungle
My hand was held five inches in front of my face, yet, I could not see it. It was pitched dark. All around me, I could see nothing except the little cylum light indicator of my compass. There was some uncomfortable and quite chattering behind me as I led my company through the uncompromising jungles of Brunei. Navigating and creating your life in the jungle is a whole new ball game.
From the moment my troops and I entered the jungle from where we disembarked from our trucks, we entered a whole new world of navigation and creating your life. But we have to reach a specific destination to meet our H-Hr. Our only guide was my compass, map and navigation tools. Without this we will never be able to reach our destination. We have to trust the art of navigation.
The Tools of Navigation for Creating your Life
Our training in the army introduced certain critical tools to creating your life and navigation.
1. NDS –Navigation Data Sheet
In order for us to navigate successfully in closed terrain, the Navigation Data Sheet or NDS was absolutely critical. This sheet contains your entire navigation plan, from heading bearing, distance to cover, reference points to look out for to specific time frames.
It contained the detailed plan of movement that must be marked out before we even enter the jungle. Once inside, there will be no comfort and time to build this plan. Hence, it must be done before commencement of exercise or operation. Much like how creating your life is determined by a detailed blue print of success.
2. Navigation Tools
The compass, map and distance counter are primary tools of navigation. Without them, getting lost in closed terrain is a certainly. We were taught always to make sure that your tools of the trade are well taken care of. Similarly, when creating your life, you would also want to make sure that your tools of success are in good conditions.
3. Navigation Routes
The jungle is also an undulating environment. As such, sometimes it is wiser to plan for a longer route using key hill terrains as markers than to plan a straight line from A to B. The latter might be the shortest distance on the map, but that might not necessarily be the easiest. The Good Book has already warned us to seek the narrow gate rather than the wide gate to heaven. It makes sense to find the easiest route to our destination when creating your life.
4. Navigation Culture
Every leader has a navigation preference. Some like to walk the point and lead everyone. Some incorporate people in front to clear the vegetation. Some prefers to assign designated roles for others. To each his own. The important thing is to reach the destination when creating your life.
Lessons from Navigation for Creating your Life
When I think back of the navigation challenges that I have gone through, I could clearly see lessons for creating your life as well. Here are seven lessons that you could all learn from navigating and creating your life.
1. Trust you compass heading
After setting your compass heading, you must learn to trust the direction it indicates. Even when you start venturing into uncomfortable areas, following your compass is still the best bet to your destination.
In creating your life, you will also reach your destination once you have set a correct course. It is not difficult to plan the correct course of action. The difficulty lies in having the discipline to follow the course for creating your life you want. Learn to trust the compass heading you have done and keep moving in that direction.
2. Protect your navigation tools
What are the navigation tools of success for creating your life you want? Take good care of your tools of success and success will surely come. Some of these tools of success include your communication skills, goal setting tools, personal development skill sets, emotional mastery, values and virtues in life. Guard these tools carefully least they fail you at the most critical times.
3. Selecting the best pacers
When we navigate, we often need to have a pacer to measure the distance traveled to know when we have reached a milestone in our journey. In the sameness of the jungle, the distance and direction are all the references we will ever have.
Similarly in creating your life, you need to assign some pacers to tell you if you have reached your planned milestones in life. These pacers could be yourself, but it is usually better to have a second pair of eyes to give you valuable feedback.
4. Find a visible feature and walk to it.
One of the navigation tricks is not to follow the compass while walking, but rather, to point the compass bearing at a distant object and walk towards that object. Once you identified a distant marker, keep your compass and walk towards that.
In creating your life you want having visible distant milestone is key to overall success. Like a marathon runner running towards the next lamp post, you should just focus on the next destination in the right direction. Do this enough and you will reach your destination.
5. Plan your route properly. Include all details.
The NDS is a critical plan for reaching your destination. In creating your life, that NDS is your life plan. Include as much details as you can like how you would plan your NDS in navigation. If you leave things sketchy, your success will also be sketchy.
6. Take your rest.
A typical navigation exercise takes at least 12 hours to complete. No soldier ever reaches their final objective in one go. It is important to rest and celebrate internally at every check point. Creating your life is the same. Be prepared to stop, rest, regroup, celebrate and plan for the next check point of success.
7. Keep people updated frequently.
No one send a soldier out on a navigation exercise alone. Soldiers always work in pairs or more. Thus, in creating your life journey, it is also foolish to go it alone. Get someone to walk the journey with you. That person will become a strength and support for you as you keep him or her constantly updated on your journey.
Your turn now! How are you navigating your life right now? In creating your life you want do you have a set of tools that you keep handy? What processes do you undertake in creating your life you want?
This was a great read!
I’m not too sure how I’m navigating through my life but it seems like I’ navigating through a maze at times to be quite honest.
‘find a visible feature and walk to it’ – great stuff! If you don’t have something to focus o, then where are you going, right? I mean, life would be pretty pointless at times. Just like with having a goal you should plan on how to reach that goal. Some people are so hung up though on taking the precise journey they planned that they miss some of the good stuff along the way.
Gabriella recently posted..Scam On Facebook That Threatens To Delete Your Account
Hi Gabriella,
Navigating life can become a all consuming process. Like you mention, in the process we can fail to notice the finer things of life and along the way. That is the danger here. Life is all about the experiences and the enjoyment of things in this world. Beware not to be too caught up with the process forgetting the to appreciate life in the process.
Great tips Jimmmy!
I do remember when we had once gone camping from our school and landed up in an unknown place once, we survived only thanks to the compass that one of us were carrying. Had it not been for that, I wonder which direction we would have wandered off. It sure is the most important tool if you land in such places and get lost!
I guess presently I am navigating in the direction I have always wanted to, and trying to find peace within myself and my surroundings. I am ever so grateful to the Almighty for every passing day and for all the wonderful things, good friends, and beautiful family he has given me. What more could I ask for?
Thanks for sharing and wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving as well. :)
Harleena Singh recently posted..I Need to Thank
Harleena,
You are on wonderful journey. I can feel the positive vibes of your life’s journey. As you navigate your own life, I hope that you will remember to pause and ponder about the little secrets of life. They are the reasons why we live sometimes. It would be a real shame to lose sight of these as we walk and plough through life’s journey.
Jimmy,
That is great analogy. Navigating through life is very much like navigating through a jungle or forest.
I think many times we make the plans but fail to follow the compass. We see something off the the left or right and take a side trip then we are completely off course and can not find our way back.
I am trying right now to set my course and stick with it to the end. Taking rabbit trails leads nowhere.
I like the part about not doing it alone and stopping at each check point to rest and celebrate. When I was in high school I was involved in a search and rescue unit. We did a lot of compass training. One of our tests was to do a solo compass course at night. It took several hours to finish. I remember getting to one of the check points and the person there had food. I sat there with him for a long time eating and visiting and celebrating that I had made it to his check point. That was a great time and made it so I could then push on.
Thanks for the great post.
Dee Ann Rice
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Hi Dee Ann,
A very warm welcome to Life Architects.
Funny how people will lose trust and faith in our compass of life once the journey gets started. I remember numerous occasions when surrounded by surroundings that I think is wrong, I begin to doubt my compass bearing. That’s when we get into trouble. We go off course from the only thing that could bring us accurate directions.
Resting is crucial too. You never know what the next leg of the journey will feel like. It could be a longer than expected trek which could sap all your energies without proper respite at the last check point.
This is a clever post Jimmy and it does show how important it is to have the right tools and resources when navigating our lives. The number one resource for me is knowledge and then putting that knowledge into action to gain experience and wisdom.
Justin | Personal Growth recently posted..Taking Responsibility for Yourself and Choices
Right on Justin. The tools and resources of life include knowledge. Knowledge properly applied leads to power and success later on.
Hi Jimmy,
Great analogy! Our stories about life have a great power about how we navigate through life and this is a great one. Trusting your compass heading is very good one. For me it mean trusting the heart. It knows where I have to go.
Thanks for sharing.
marc van der linden recently posted..The 10 day mental change ( DAY 5 ) – self-talk
I like the fact that you think our compass in life is our heart. That is very true. But far too often, we heed the advice from the head and go against the wishes of the heart. That is our ego at work always thinking that logic and our opinions will prevail. But that is always not true in life.
Jimmy,
Love this – “The important thing is to reach the destination when creating your life.”
Another tool I like to use is gratitude – developing an attitude of gratitude.
Baby steps – the important thing is that we don’t hit the PAUSE button – just keeping pressing PLAY….
I like the way you use analogies my friend,
Living in the possibilites,
Nancy
Nancy Shields recently posted..BUBBLE OF HOPE – CIRCLE OF LOVE AND GRATITUDE
Nancy,
Thank you for highlighting the need for gratitude in our lives to create our life. Only when we appreciate all that we already have will we be able to create more for ourselves that will be appreciated in the end. I like way you tell us not to pause too often but to keep playing our life’s movie.
Jimmy,
This was terrific and full of great tips! I love the analogy of navigating the jungle too. I think when we set an intention and then keep our eyes focused on getting to that point – we do get there. You’re advice is spot on – thank you!
Angela Artemis/Poweredbyintuition recently posted..A Day for Gratitude and Thanksgiving
Hi Angela,
Life is indeed a jungle as well. It requires sound navigation skills and tools. Along the way we might not see any light to our destination, but if we are focus and trust in our bearing, we will get there.
The jungle is also full of life to be admire. Far to often we go through the jungle of life without stopping and appreciating the best things in life. Things are always there for the taking, but we choose to pass it by.
Jimmy,
Nice analogy for people like me who are always getting lost;) Happy Thanksgiving.
Tess,
You are always welcome.
Ah, great analogy Jimmy. I loved this post and how you compared it to moving through the jungle. Very clever indeed.
I’d have to say by setting my goals I need to accomplish whether it’s for that week, month or longer and then taking consistent action each day in order to reach my desired destination. Of course there are other things involved along the way like being grateful each day, my positive mindset and my education that continue to pull me through. They will all help me lead to success, that I have no doubt.
Adrienne recently posted..How To Get What You Want Out Of Life
Hi Adrienne,
I like the fact that your own navigation in life consist of different tiered goals – daily, weekly and even monthly. I think this form of goal settings is very power to keep us focus on our journey in life.
Hi Jimmy,
My first time visiting you here. Your article title piqued my curiosity as I was reading and leaving a comment on Adrienne Smith’s blog. :) I really do love CommentLuv Premium, it’s my #1 source for getting connected to the Go-Givers in the blogging community…but I digress…
I enjoy the parallel you have drawn in designing life being akin to navigating thru a jungle. Interesting comparison, but very accurate!!
I like to calibrate myself from within as I am preparing myself to move forward in all things I do. I do a simple NLP anchoring technique that helps me ground myself internally so that my intentions are really aligned from a deep part within myself. I find that when I do this, I’m so much more authentic in my approach to life and navigating my journey. :)
Thanks for the great topic!
Cat Alexandra
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Hello Catherine,
Welcome to Life Architects and thanks for visiting and leaving such a lovely comment. Comment luv does connect people together in a big way right? I am amazed at the results all the time.
I am also glad to know that you are a NLP practitioner. I have attended a course myself and think that many of the skills are really appropriate to help us live better. Even though many of the skills are common sense, but I think NLP helps to make things more deliberate for fruitful living. As the saying goes “Knowledge without practice is useless.” I think NLP allows us to make things very practical for a good cause.
Perhaps we can link up from time to time to discuss this NLP stuff farther.