Reviewing Your Progress
If the goal is distant, and the journey is long and difficult we will have maby questions along the way. On such a journey, even the most determined individuals may be troubled by doubts regarding their progress. This may cause them to assess their situation, review their maps, question their plans and, in extreme cases, even question their purpose. These understandable doubts can be expressed in the form of four new questions related our journey:
How am I progressing?
Do I need to revise my action or my plan?
If revision is required what should it be, and at what level – action, goal, or purpose?
How can I assure that I will stay the course in my revised journey and, therefore, get to my goal?
The first question suggests that one needs to have a way of measuring progress. For you cannot assess something that you have not measured or gauged. So, you need some form of measures, gauges, landmarks or tools of measurement, to determine the progress of your journey. Only when you have determined where you are, with respect to where your plan shows you ought to be, can you determine whether or not you need to revise your action or to change your plan and redirect your journey.
Once you have determined where you are with respect to your original plan, it is possible for you to decide whether or not you need to make a change. This then gives you a clue to what you need in order to be prepared to answer the second question.
The third question is more complex. It is more difficult to answer because it requires a high level of judgment, based upon knowledge or wisdom – gained from prior experience with this type of journey from a guide or teacher, or from any other source including, perhaps, some inner intuitive or even spiritual wisdom. The judgment hinges upon the main question about how deep does the change have to be? In other words, we have to judge whether the correction or change calls for a simple redirection of the the action at hand, or do we believe that we need to change some of the intermediate goals (i.e. milestones along the way), the ultimate goal, or the mission which defined the purpose for our action or journey. Or, perhaps, we may believe that we need to rethink, and maybe modify, or even altogether scrap, our vision which started us on this journey in the first place.
The considerations surround this question are important in the conduct of significant missions, or in the pursuit of purposeful actions that are most important in our lives. They help us to surface our doubts and to either destroy the ghosts that ride upon our shoulders. They help us make real changes in our lives that may be beneficial to the course of our actions, missions. They even influence what we may, from time to time, “envision” about our future.
The considerations stemming from the question about the level of change required can provide a basis for changes to our life. They can help us find a path to the growth of our self. That is to say, by recognizing and responding to these questions, we may become better equipped to review and redirect our journey in life. The significance of these questions are independent of the philosophy or theology upon which our personal religion or faith is based. In other words, these considerations are common to all individuals and are relevant to all aspects of our lives. They can help us face and overcome obstacles and doubts that we face in most of our actions everyday
The fourth question is centered upon issues such as confidence, belief, faith and perseverance or persistence. In other words, the response to this question depends upon a series of other questions, such as: what degree of confidence do I have in the quality of the plan? how much faith do we have in the leader’s ability to get us to where we want to go (that is, if we have a leader or a living teacher or guide)? do we have the degree of faith or self-discipline necessary to stay the course? and so on.
Bothersome as they may appear, these considerations need to be addressed if all except the most trivial actions are to be accomplished successfully. With considerations such as these in mind it will be easier to search for the right answers, since you are more likely to ask the right questions, at the appropriate points. The questions asked will depend upon your situation and their relevence and importance to the particular journey upon which you are then embarked. Much could be gained by adding such considerations to your reservoir of knowledge, even if it were in the form of nagging, and perhaps sometimes bothersome, questions.
On the other hand, what could be lost by enriching your mind as so to better equip yourself to navigate the twisting and turning streams of life?
Essays excerpted from The Trilogy, as well the entire Brookmaster game, can be found in the pages of this web site.
Happy navigating and, again, welcome to The Brook!