Would you fly without a GPS?

Would you fly without a GPS?

Imagine you want to fly from Los Angeles to New York, but the captain does not use a GPS to check whether he is on track. This could be the most experienced pilot in the world. Chances are that you will not end up in New York. Even if you are just one degree off course, you will end up in a totally different state! So, would you fly without a GPS?

Probably not. But we do exactly that in many other parts of our life. We set a goal and then we just roll with it. Never checking in where we are in fact. And at the end, we wonder, why we don’t achieve our goals. Let’s tackle this right now!

Never miss your aspired business destination

Everything starts with your goals. Set yourself SMART goals. Just to remember, these are goals that are specific, measurable, attractive, realistic and timed. Make sure your goals match these criteria, otherwise it will be difficult to achieve them at all.

Once you set your goals, you break them down into smaller goals and start working on them.

Then, you “just” have to keep an eye on your goals. Make sure that your actions are targeted to reaching your goals. Every action should count towards your goal achievement.

If you realize that you are deviating off track, implement adjustments as fast as possible. Every step you walk in the wrong direction guides you more away from your goals than checking briefly where you are at before moving forward again. The longer you wait, the more you need to adjust.

Staying in your lane

Staying on track is difficult. When you learn to drive a car, you realize that staying in your lane is not that easy as it looks. You need to be constantly aware and adjust the steering wheel to stay in your own lane. Especially when you are just getting started, you realize how difficult this can be.

Same is true in business and any other area of your life. The only difference is that normally you don’t have a white line on the ground that helps you with the orientation of where you are.

That’s why you have to set up these “guiding lines” by yourself. By defining milestones on the path to success, you have intermediate checkmarks that help you track your progress.

Winning Championships without a coach?

Do you know any world class athlete that has no coach? I don’t. And regularly, when you see athletes thinking that they can do it by themselves, they suddenly underperform.

Their trainer is not just the person to motivate them or give them tips. Your trainer also keeps you on track. Whether via competitor analysis, optimization of your training schedule, some extra sessions when needed, your trainer pushes you to get you to your goals.

Thus, they make your life easier because they break your goals down for you and push you to get you there.

And this is the same thing you need to do in your business.

Steps to keep you on track

How to stay on track? Let’s go back to the GPS example to visualize the process.

First, you enter your start point and your destination into your GPS. Thus, you want to make sure you enter the right start and end point.

Then, the route is calculated. This is in your case mapping out your intermediate goals that you want to achieve at certain milestones. Thus, as a result, you will be 100% clear about your path.

Finally, you just need to observe your GPS. A pilot is not just looking at the GPS in the beginning. In the beginning he simply puts the coordinates in the GPS, and every now and then he’s checking in about the height, the depth and everything. Because worst case, if he’s not doing this, he will either end up in the wrong location or collide with another airplane. Also, if there are some unforeseen things like a storm, he needs to be able to react and adjust.

Same is true for you. If you get off track while you are travelling, the GPS will tell you to adjust. This means for you to set up alerts when you get off track, check in regularly and monitor where you are going. As you find a deviation, you apply corrective actions to fix it and get back on track.

Professionals only fly with a GPS

As a professional business person, you want to have goals and check in on them regularly to see whether you are on track to success. If you are not on course, you need to make adjustments, and maybe even get some help.

The question is, if you were a pilot, would you fly without a GPS?

If your answer’s no, which I hope, why would you fly without a GPS in your business? The GPS is what makes you successful. Winging it is not a strategy for a pilot. Know what you are doing at each step of the way is a much better strategy for achieving your goals.