I remember the first time I got turned around when I started messing around in backcountry public lands. I was crossing a couple of ridges and then realized that I wasn’t sure if I had crossed 2 ridges since I started or 3. But each one looked nearly identical to the one before. And so I got out my compass and then realized that I didn’t know exactly where I was, so a compass wasn’t going to help much. Knowing there’s a road by the lake only matters if you know where the lake is in relation to you. Is it south of you? Is it west of you? How far? You can’t know that walking north will take you back to the road if you don’t already know that you are south of the road right now.
I obviously made it out. But it taught me a valuable lesson: if you want to go somewhere, a key piece of the journey is knowing where you actually are right now.
We’re just wrapping up a 2-week fitness testing cycle at our gym. We assess everything from flexibility to deadlift strength to coordination, and a bunch of stuff in between. Testing your fitness is not remotely necessary to overall health and wellness. But there’s a lot of value to it. And one of the most valuable pieces is that it tells you where you are. This is especially important if you’re not where you want to be (which is the least fun time to do it). Nobody likes taking the before picture.
But if you’re not where you want to be, then you risk wandering around aimlessly unless you know where you are now. It’s like real estate… they say the three most important factors are location, location, location. Where are you now? What’s your location? Do you need to lift heavier weights? Do you need to work in more stretching? Do you need to work out more? Less? Harder? Easier? Tough to say. Unless you know where you are.
Once you do know where you are (even if finding out doesn’t feel good), it’s much easier to put together a plan for how to get where you want to be. You can do this on your own, without a coach, of course. But this is one of the places where coaching really shines. When you know point A and you know point B, a conversation with a coach is a super-efficient way to figure out the route. We call those conversations “Goal Reviews” for our members. We call them “Intros,” for people we haven’t met yet.
They’re always free. And they’re always about helping you find that route. You can set up a time to do that right HERE. And then you can get on your way with the journey. With a map that will take you to your destination. Which is the only kind that matters if you’re not decorating your smoking lounge.