Course Corrections
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True confessions...I have to confess that sometimes it's hard to be a hero. Even just the hero of my own story. How many times has it felt that it would be so much easier if only we could abdicate the position of protagonist in our lives...let someone else take control, be the boss. But, hey! That is NOT what autonomy is all about, now is it? As the hero of my story, I can't justify to myself any such shirking of my duties as captain of my airplane. I cannot control the weather I fly through, nor the air currents of the skies. But I can plot my course and continue heading to the destination...the destiny...that I desire for myself. Do you sometimes feel like you are traveling sideways through life? Struggling to reach your self-determined goals only to find that there is no straight-forward path? Whew! I understand that one! I used to live directly on the flight path of the Erie International Airport, only about a mile and a half from the east-west runways. As the planes made their approaches for landing, it became apparent that some days the pilots had to make a lot of adjustment for the winds. There were times I would literally see a plane flying due west, but with its nose pointed south-southwest. There was so much wind that the plane had to 'push' in one direction in order for it to actually fly in another! Just like an airplane in mid-flight, I have to continually evaluate where I am at present, track where I want to go, and take into account all the events, situations and circumstances that are attempting to sway my given course. Sometimes I cannot simply point my nose in the direction I want to take; the forces at work around me will inevitably push me off course and take me somewhere I did NOT want to go. *wry laugh* Instead, just like the airplane pilots in the face of a strong prevailing wind, I have to make the course corrections. Sometimes those course corrections are irritating. Sometimes they are merely tedious. And sometimes they are downright problematic! Finding the *right* heading to correct for the surrounding circumstances can be a really tough job! This is where that continual evaluation, that continual checking in with yourself and your predetermined goals, can help. Are you getting sidetracked? Are you getting disrupted? Are there barriers to your goal you hadn't realized, and how can you circumvent them? We must also continue to re-evaluate our goals themselves. Sometimes we will find that a goal is quite simply unattainable. Or perhaps it is still a worthwhile and perhaps even necessary goal for our self and our hero-hood, but that we have to "go to Chicago by way of Atlanta". We also may find that we have outgrown a goal, or that our interest in it may have waned. Sure, all of this can be hard work, but...true confessions. I'd rather have the work, the uncertainties, the aggravation and, yes, even the pain of being the pilot of my aircraft. I do not *ever* want to find that I've been flying on autopilot. |