A destination/outcome for our lives is a complex concept. But generally speaking the concepts of happiness, stability, and being happy with one’s identity are universal themes most of us can understand.

We can feel what those things mean for us even if the visions themselves look wildly different.

What most of us struggle with, however, is where to start the journey.

Where do we start?

Consider this framework – Mental Cartography.

Cartography is the art of making and reading navigation maps to get from one location to the next in the most effective way possible – a useful skill to be sure. But for this to work you need to know exactly where you are starting, and where you want to end up. The second part is where we tend to start because it’s so much easier but it does little on its own to start there.

For navigating to work we need to see both the start and the endpoint as equals.

To do this effectively, look around you. Where are you right now? What kinds of things, people, and circumstances are present and how relevant are they to the journey to your ideal destination what are the factors moving you to find something new or in addition to in the first place?

Knowing this is the real key to understanding personal navigation.

Build YOUR map for your reasons, and as you do, you’ll be able to mark your life’s problem areas, shortcuts, longitudes and latitudes in the same way as a cartographer builds a charter map.

And just like a real map, once you’ve built it, you can keep it forever and build new versions as they are needed.