A Guide to Creating Your Personal Direction Plan: A Compass for Intentional Living in a Distracted World
By: Ryan Brence
I don’t know about you, but I struggle with directions.
Growing up, I never really paid much attention to the direction I was heading in any mode of transportation. I took it for granted that my parents, bus drivers, or friends’ parents knew where they were going, so why did I need to pay attention to how we traveled to our destination?
This lack of situational awareness did not serve me well once I entered the military. As a young cadet at West Point, I received instruction on land navigation. The tools included a topographic map (which I never even considered using beforehand), an orienteering compass, and a pencil to plot grid coordinates.
Being a city boy from the suburbs, or “burbs” as some call it, I was already lost…
After receiving instruction, we were tasked to individually navigate to different location points within a set perimeter in the hilly wooded terrain found in Upstate New York. The instructors taught us three key steps for finding direction in land navigation:
Take time to plan out your route. Once you receive the exact grid coordinates of your different locations, you must put in concentrated time and detailed effort to find and plot your points and plan your route. If you don’t take the time to properly strategize the sequence of your journey, and the checkpoints along the way, then you may as well be traveling blindfolded through the woods. I took A LOT of time ensuring that I correctly plotted my grid coordinates and then developed a plan of action.
Set your azimuth in the right direction. The azimuth is the directional line shown on your compass that steers you in the right direction towards your destination. After spending the necessary time to correctly plot your points and plan your route, you should be able to point your azimuth with your compass and walk towards your intended location. This was a good starting point for me, but after a few hundred meters, I started to veer off track and quickly became lost. This leads to the third key step.
Find your location through terrain association. By aligning your map with a reference direction (North) and comparing the topographic symbols on the map with your physical surroundings, you should be able to identify your current grid coordinate. This is where I really struggled. I couldn’t seem to pinpoint my exact location based on the terrain by referencing the symbols and marked points on my map. They didn’t match up, and ultimately, I would find myself lost and in need of help.
Why do I mention these tools and steps in basic land navigation?
Well, for two reasons - I want you to actually pay attention to where you’re going in life. And, I want to provide you with a powerful tool and some steps to live in alignment with your intended destination - the person you want to be.
Creating A Personal Direction Plan
In today’s age, we live in a very busy, confusing, and distracted world.
With social media, television, and smartphones that rarely leave the palms of our hands, there is an exorbitant amount of information at our disposal. So, when it comes to living an intentional life, where do we even begin?
For most people, it’s too overwhelming to even get started. Consider these staggering statistics from a Harvard Business Study related to goal-setting:
83% of respondents had no goals.
14% of respondents had plans but had not written them down. The study found that this group was 10 times more likely to succeed than those without any goals.
3% of respondents had written down their goals. They were 3 times more likely to succeed than the group who had some plan in mind.
We spend a great deal of time developing business plans, game plans, vacation plans - just to name a few. However, if we’re honest, many of us don’t actually take the time to develop a plan to become who we want to be.
Going back to the land navigation analogy - many people do not take the time to plot their points and route along the journey to reach their intended destination.
So, back to the question - where do we even begin? A starting point is creating a Personal Direction Plan.
Over the years, I've created goals, taken a hard look at my habits, and carefully considered my systems and methods for living an intentional life.
All of these reflections are useful, but they are generally focused on outcomes or processes. In order to become who we want to be, we must first start with our identity. Like a house under construction, there needs to be a strong foundation for the rest of the home to be built upon.
It is important to understand that a Personal Direction Plan starts with living in alignment with who you want to be. This means that instead of waking up in reactive mode responding to daily to-do’s based on the level of urgency, you leverage your identity (who you want to be) to intentionally direct your path and the decision points along your journey.
To overcome confusion, eliminate distraction, and focus planning that leads to action, a Personal Direction Plan helps leaders determine, align, and integrate their core values, personal mission statement, focus areas, goals, and habits so they can enjoy their journey and live in accordance with who they want to be.
The first and most critical step of crafting a Personal Direction Plan is to come up with a set of core values and a personal mission statement. This is where we will begin.
Personally Defining Your Core Values
If I asked you about your identity and what you value, you could probably list off several roles and various things that you appreciate in your life. Then, I would have 3 questions for you:
1. Do your actions typically line up with what you value?
2. Have you written out or typed up specific values to make them more concrete?
3. Do you review them consistently to ensure your day-to-day plans and actions align with what you value?
You probably see where I'm going with these questions. We can optimize systems and processes to achieve desired results, but if we do things that are not congruent with our values, the chances of reaching true satisfaction and fulfillment are slim.
In Intentional Leader's last blog post, Cal provided clarity on how to create a personal mission statement. He walked us through the "Funeral Exercise" to show the importance of beginning with the end in mind to reflect on how we would like to be remembered in several important areas of our lives.
From that exercise, he shared how those thoughts and ideas regarding how he would like to be remembered helped crystallize what is really important to him (i.e. what he values).
So, your personal mission statement needs to encapsulate what you really care about and ultimately cascade into intentionally leading your life in alignment with your core values.
As an example, here is my personal mission statement:
To pursue God's will for my life and leave a legacy marked by positive impact on my family, community, and those around me.
In order to unpack this personal declaration, we must identify and then personally define our core values. This is a set of characteristics or principles that influences how we live our lives. They are the guiding stars that help us both respond to and intentionally act in accordance with what is important to us and who we want to be. If you haven’t thought about this concept before, here is a list of values to get you started: https://brenebrown.com/resources/dare-to-lead-list-of-values/
Since this core values exercise can be overwhelming if you’re just starting out, here are some ideas to help you narrow them down:
1) Start by making a list of all the values that resonate with you.
2) Think about the values that you most respect and admire in others.
3) Reflect on your past experiences and find themes that highlight your consistent values.
4) Categorize your list of values into specific groups that are similar in nature.
5) Narrow down your list to 3-5 core values that mean the most to you.
Once you have your core values, it's important for you to personally define what each value means to you. You can look up the exact definition of the word(s), but I’d encourage you to put your own spin or unique perspective on the value to represent your own personal meaning. Here is an example of two of my core values and how I define them:
Growth - I value the journey that God has given me and seek to persevere in the midst of adversity. I continually develop my strengths & weaknesses and look for ways to steadily progress in my focus areas to pursue excellence and my God-given potential.
Impact - I value the effect that I can have on those around me. I seek to bring value by understanding situations and realizing how I can use my skillset, network, and/or resources to support worthy causes that help & serve others and glorify God. I live a life that leaves a legacy of identity, mission, and impact.
It’s important to note that your core values may change in different seasons of your life. Do your best to limit the number of values to 5, determining which ones are most resounding to your current state while keeping in mind other values which may very well be highlighted during different seasons of your life journey.
Transitioning into new seasons often comes with different roles, spheres of influence, and areas of focus. That is what we’ll target next.
Determining Prioritized Focus Areas
At this point within a Personal Direction Plan, we begin to analyze the various categories or spaces in our lives and their corresponding priority levels based on our core values. These focus areas can include specific roles that we maintain (e.g. Husband / Father / Friend, etc.) or more general domains in our lives (e.g. Faith / Family / Work, etc.).
While you may spend more time and energy in a particular focus area, such as work, it does not necessarily mean you should place that at the top of your list. At the same time, even if your work or career (as an example) is a lower prioritized focus area on your list, there should still be a pattern, or common thread, of living within that focus area that stems from your identity.
Similar to the core values exercise, we need to creatively define the roles or domains based on our unique perspective. So, as you identify and prioritize these focus areas, it’s critical to give a personal description of how you act, behave, or respond within these spaces.
The key word I continue to come back to is alignment. So, the question is, how do you want to consistently show up within your focus areas so that you align with your core values and personal mission statement? Here are examples of two of my own focus areas that I’ve defined for myself:
1) Faith - I am a man of God and trust in the plans He has for my life.
-I have quiet time with my Lord daily to grow closer to Him.
-I give myself grace when I sin or do not achieve all my strivings.
-I am part of Christian community.
-I invite others to our church and seek opportunities to share the Gospel.
2) Family - I am the spiritual leader of our home. I pursue my wife and daughters.
-I cherish each day and moment with my wife and daughters.
-I speak affirmations & prayers over them.
-I am present when I am with them and actively listen and respond to them.
-I create moments & experiences to show them what special gifts they are to me from God.
Notice how these descriptions are essentially affirmations of who I am and how I want to be known and remembered. This exercise takes a very general area of your life and sharpens the perspective within the specific space to represent what you value most and how you want to represent yourself in that role or domain.
Your description of each focus area can range from broader characteristics you would like to display to more specific habits or actions that you want to take in order to show up in ways that integrate with your core values and personal mission statement. Now that you have a clearer perspective of your identity, and how your core values show up in each of your prioritized focus areas within your life, it is time to set aligned goals & milestones that will lead to intentional action in your life.
Nesting Your Goals
We’ve covered a lot of ground so far, but this is the section where the rubber meets the road. While our personal mission statement, core values, and focus areas are more general in nature, they set the strong foundation and tone for the planning, actions, and decisions that we make on a consistent basis.
As mentioned earlier, instead of waking up to a new day and simply reacting to what comes at us, (and we all know there is a lot that comes at us), we are prepared and equipped to act in alignment with who and what we affirm as our identities and prioritized focus areas.
This gives our day-to-day living more clarity, intentionality, and overall excitement.
By closely examining our core values and focus areas, we can set goals that involve activities, people, and experiences that provide us with a greater overall sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. In a previous Intentional Leader blog post, Tim Janes offered a similar framework for identifying Themes (or goals within focus areas), then planning actions or habits that underpin the manifestation of those Themes. You can view the article here.
Some of these goals may be outcomes-based (such as running a marathon or triathlon), while others may be more identity-based (such as being a more intentional husband or father). Regardless of the type of goal, it is important to consider integrating them with your core values and focus areas. Also, it is imperative to consider the SMART goal-setting framework, as we seek to establish goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. Here are two personal goals of mine that include important milestones to consider for each:
Faith (focus area) - Memorize 12 Bible life verses to stamp on my heart and mind in 2022.
Milestones – Choose 1 verse to memorize and deeply reflect on each month. Seek opportunities to use weekly in prayers and conversations.
Family (focus area) - Go on 12 date nights with my wife to connect, reflect, and enjoy time together in 2022.
Milestones – Each month plan a date, coordinate child care, and be thoughtful and present during time together. Have fun.
Personally, I can tell you that I am much more motivated to achieve these set goals because they align with my personal mission statement, core values, and focus areas. I know that working towards these goals will grow me closer to my intended destination. Throughout the process, I will learn what is effective and what may need tweaking for my goals in the future.
Developing Habits - The Ideal Day Exercise
When it comes to habits, the same theme holds true to ensure that we are consistently acting in alignment with our identity. In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear explains that what you do is a mirror image of the type of person you believe that you are (either consciously or subconsciously). We want to consciously believe who we are and then execute accordingly.
Since you are intrinsically motivated by what you value, an awesome exercise to try out is crafting your ideal day. By using your platform of choice (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc.), simply create a new calendar and then intentionally think about specific recurring events or activities that would bring you the most satisfaction and fulfillment on a daily or weekly basis.
A best practice for this exercise would be to have your Personal Direction Plan in view, which includes all the areas we’ve covered so far (your personal mission statement, core values, focus areas, and goals) in order to cross-reference as you fill in the time slots for your ideal day. Here are a few example activities on my ideal day calendar:
7:00 - 7:30am: Full-body weightlifting circuit
12:00 - 12:30pm: Go for a walk outside
5:00 - 5:30pm: Connect with family member or close friend
9:30 - 10:00pm: Read in bed
Of course, you will have other commitments on your personal and workday calendars that change from day-to-day or week-to-week. Be realistic and consider what will typically be required of you, as well as cognizant of the times of day that make the most sense to perform certain actions along with your normal energy levels.
With that being said, if you are able to pull up and view your ideal day on a consistent basis, and cross-reference it with your other calendars, you will be much more likely to actually input activities that are most fulfilling to you into your schedule.
And over time, who knows, you may find that you've picked up a few new habits that are in alignment with your identity in the process.
Putting it All Together
In the arena of personal development, there is so much information to take in that it can be overwhelming. A Personal Direction Plan puts the focus on who you want to be and what you want to do in your life. If you begin with the end in mind, you can reverse engineer the actions you take so they align with your identity instead of responding to the confusing and distracting world that we live in.
In review, your identity encompasses your personal mission statement, core values, and focus areas. In turn, you proactively show up each day with aligned goals and actions that demonstrate who you are and what you stand for. Over time, you will come closer and closer to embodying the person you want to be known and remembered for because you will be living with intention and in accordance with your values.
By writing out or typing up your Personal Direction Plan, and then putting it in a location where you can review it often, you will make it that much more concrete in your mind. Thus, you will be more likely to take action and live in alignment with your identity. This frequent review primes your brain to think, speak, and act more intentionally throughout your days - affirming what is most important to you. This creates a positive feedback loop which gives you more momentum to grow and build upon.
Navigating & Enjoying the Journey
To bring this full circle, let’s return to land navigation. When I was a cadet at West Point, I had to individually navigate from one point to the next in difficult terrain during my training. Many times, I got lost and found myself returning to my tools - that is my map, compass, and pencil to plot my grid coordinates and route. Over time, I eventually learned how to appropriately navigate by leveraging the tools and steps I received from my instruction. Here’s how:
I took the time to ensure I marked my locations correctly and planned my route. This relates to us spending the appropriate amount of time reflecting on and identifying the elements of our Personal Direction Plans.
I used my compass to steer me in the right direction toward my destination. Your Personal Direction Plan will help guide and recenter you towards who you want to be in your life, in the midst of trials, tribulations, and even triumphs.
I associated terrain near me, cross-referenced the map, and changed my route as needed. The beauty of a Personal Direction Plan is that it can and should be a constantly evolving document that can be adjusted based on the seasons and circumstances of your life.
At first, I hated land navigation because I assumed I wasn’t proficient with directions. I was nervous, unclear, and distracted. However, after using my tools correctly and reviewing and practicing the process over and over again, I realized that I was being disoriented by factors that were distracting me. Once I became laser focused on what really mattered and worked for me in my land navigation approach, I slowly but surely started to reach my destination. And if a city boy from the “burbs” can finally begin navigating his way around this confusing and distracted world, believe me, so can you..
Go enjoy your journey, and make it count!!
