Life Without a Map

July 16, 2016 by Charlie Hedges − 0 Comments

Seth Godin says, “Don’t curse your dead ends and failures. They’re the key element of the work you are doing. We find our way by getting lost. Anything other than that is called reading a map.”

The days of 5 and 10-year plans are over. Even a 3-year plan is a bit of a stretch. The world is simply changing too fast. As I’ve written in the past on exponential growth, “We live in an exciting time where all knowledge is doubling every couple years or so.” We will not even recognize life in 2025, only 9 years away. Autonomous cars, virtual reality, a man on Mars, robots (even doing surgery)…just to list a few changes that will be considered “normal” by 2025.

There Be Monsters Here

I find ”life and business maps” today similar to maps of 300 years ago when mankind believed the earth was flat. In the unknown areas of the map the words, “There be monsters here” were commonplace.

Today, instead of “there be monsters here,” we might find the words, “there be wonders here!” Physical maps are indeed helpful tools when used for the right purpose. But, mental and strategic maps are only valid for a brief time in the present. Something in the environment will change, therefore the map must be adjusted.

I love life without a map.

Sometimes I get lost. Actually, I get lost a lot. So I must be a daily cartographer, adjusting my map to the current environment, external AND internal. Not only is the world changing, but I am changing internally as well. What I believed yesterday is often altered today by new information or a revised perception of the world.

Maps are too limiting for me. I relish opportunities to “figure it out” along the way to wherever it is I’m not sure I’m going. Haha.