It may seem a little early to bring up the subject. Usually, people do not talk about mid-course corrections until several months into a new year. First, let me define the term: “a navigational correction made in the course of a ship, airplane, rocket, or space vehicle at some point between the beginning and end of the journey.”
I fly several times a year. I leave point A trusting that the pilot will get me to point B. Since I do not know all that goes into flying a plane, from my vantage point it seems simple. The pilot should just plug in our final destination, and the auto-pilot should take over and get us to our goal. The simple definition did not say when the mid-course correction should take place, just sometime between the beginning and the end of the journey.
What is the big deal? If the plane, ship, or rocket is not continually adjusting, “correcting” itself, it will end up somewhere else other than the desired destination. In life, this is also true. Just a few days ago we devised resolutions, made goals, committed to changing, figured out some habits to quit and a few others to start. We started with enthusiasm and vigor. This year would be different. It would be a new you for the new year! Even though we are less than two weeks into the new year, it is not too early to start feeling the gravitational pull back to the ordinary and into our normal routines. One of our problems is that we wait too late in the month or year to make some much-needed corrections and adjustments.
So, I am inviting you to examine where you are before you are too far out of the gate. It is easier to make adjustments before we get much farther into the year.
What should a mid-course correction look like for you and me?
How am I doing up to this point? Am I making progress? Am I sticking with my plan? Have we even started or stopped what we said we would begin or end?
You should know any goal, a project or habit you are attempting to implement is changeable! Whatever you want to accomplish is not irrevocable. What sounded good writing it down on a piece of paper may not have the same impact when you attempt to implement into your life. Your first mid-course correction may be to eliminate something you now realize will not have the effect you thought or move you any closer to your goals. It is okay, let me give you permission it is okay to change things. That may be your mid-course correction throwing something away or doing a major rewrite.
This time of evaluation should also be to see that in small ways we are moving in the intended direction. Give yourself some credit! Way to go!
If you look at things today, you have time to see what blind spots you have. You may have been so focused on one area you have neglected another area you are working on. Look to make sure you have not just put things on a to-do-list but that you have placed those things in your calendar. I am a big believer that if your list does not get on your schedule, it will not get done.
One purpose for checking now is we are so early in the year things have not gotten too far away from us, and this makes them much easier to adjust.
It is not enough to just set goals, one must tweak and adjust continually. Examine where you are today. Are you pleased with your progress? Give yourself a reward. Are you unhappy with where you are? Look at where you can make small incremental changes and commit today to the needed changes.
If you do not make corrections periodically instead of New York, you will land your plane in Miami by the end of the year. Just as little changes that are done consistently over time will lead to significant results. Little things left uncorrected also done consistently over time lead to largely missed targets.
So take some time today and test how you are doing with those things you wanted to achieve or change or do this year. Periodically throughout the year sit down and examine and evaluate where you are and how things are going. Nothing massive, just keep taking the small necessary steps and before long the impact will be enormous.
