Driving Into The Nothing
You have to have a destination, even if you are driving through the fog.
This last week, we’ve been in Denmark, taking a break for a few days in the flat land that is my homeland. I’d never been to Jutland before, even though I come from here. It was amazing to drive nearly the length of the country, and it’s very reminiscent of the Norfolk broads and marshland. This is not a surprise as those two used to be one landmass a very, very long time ago – I’m sure that the Vikings who hit shore there felt very at home!
On leaving there, we drove into serious fog. It was literally visible about 50 metres in front of us in places. The sun was having a battle with the misty wet clouds. We kept driving, carefully. Even though we couldn’t see the impact of the kilometres we were leaving behind, we knew where we were headed and that was enough. It’s made me really think of the business journey we take.
So often we need to just decide where we are headed and keep going in that direction, without stopping or veering off hoping for ‘better weather’. It’s important to set the destination, and then enjoy all of it on the way to it. Even if it’s poor visibility, there’s beauty and learning. Going slowly allows us to see more what’s in front of us, and sharpens the senses differently. By the time we got to the ferry (amazing!) about 2 hours later, the sun had finally won the day and warmed the earth enough that we could see much more clearly. It meant we had one of the smoothest crossings on any sea I’ve ever been on.
I say all this to help you ‘stay the course’ – I know we all waver at times, in whatever we are doing. Hope can be hard to find, doubt can creep in, but really, if you’ve spent time and energy building up a destination that you love, then my urging is to keep moving, even if slowly towards that.
My call for you this week is to check out what feels ‘foggy’ and make a plan to keep journeying through it, take one or two actions if it seems like you’d rather just let it clear by itself or wait it out. There’s a merit in being brave and taking it slow if you need to.