Happy New Year

When our son, Carl, was five we packed up the camper for a family trip to Florida. Considering we live in Nebraska this was quite an adventure as we had five children ages 5 to 14. About an hour and a half into the trip Carl slipped up to the front of the van and asked, “Dad how long until we get to Florida?” I answered, “About three days.” He retorted, “Yea, right Dad.” He didn’t believe any place could be that far away. I’m going to repeat that. He didn’t believe any place could be that far away even though we had a road map and the route we chose was the most direct. But what if we embarked of this trip without a road map? My answer to him in all honestly would certainly have been something like, “Carl, I don’t have a clue. If we by sheer happenstance are on the correct road and stay on the correct road, it will be three days. If not, well, there is a very small chance we will ever get there.”

There is another scenario that could have been in play here. That would be if we were following a map I had drawn myself using a helter-skelter of information I had gleaned from here and there over the previous years. As I drew it, I put in all the different towns I thought would be along the way along with where I thought the best roads would be and the destination I thought should be at the end of the trip. In addition I showed it to my family and friends and they all agreed it was a very well done map. Are you with me? I hope not because this is a ridiculous way to travel anywhere. But it’s the way that I believe the vast majority of people live their entire lives. Scary, huh?

From my observation, it seems to me, most everyone has some sort of goal as to where they would like their life to take them. It is also my observation that few ever get there. It seems they either don’t have a map or the map they do have is populated with a lot of incorrect information. Furthermore I believe that the later of these two scenarios is much more prevalent. It seems most folks have a set of beliefs, a mindset if you will, that propels them to do what they do. Day in and day out, month after month and year after year, they travel along life’s path with this mindset as their guide. They don’t reach their goals because so much of the information in their mindset is incorrect. Yea they may feel comfortable with it. And it may certainly be much the same as everyone about them. But folks let me love you here. It makes absolutely no difference. When the information is wrong, it’s wrong. Today is News Years day, 2016. If you are mostly in the same spot today as you were on New Years Day 2015, and 2014, and 2013 and back and back, you might consider correcting the information on your map because if you continue to “do what you do, you will get what you got.” This is really no different from dialing the same telephone number over and over again while expecting a different party to answer? Hello? Happy New Year!! Later.