Wrong Turns

“You make a lot of wrong turns!” – Craig Kamis

Wrong Turns

I was walking through SEATAC with my wife the other day when she made the comment, “I expected you to be better at navigating airports than you are.”  The funny thing was that I hadn’t been in SEATAC for many years and thought I was doing well!  Perhaps I’m just used to making wrong turns.

As we walked along through the concourse, my mind traveled south to San Diego where I had received a similar comment from a colleague while working there more than thirteen years ago.  As we were driving to another meeting destination he looked up from the passenger seat at me and said, “You make a lot of wrong turns!”  So, it’s been documented, from at least one other source, that I’ve been making wrong turns for a long time now.  Interestingly, I’ve never viewed it that way because I’ve always been able to get where I was going.

Because I’ve always been able to reach my destination I’ve just adopted the view that my process is one of resourcefulness.  By resourceful, I mean I’ve had an address or a destination in mind and I just keep making turns until I get to the right place.  I may not be the first one there and I may make the people who are with me a little crazy, but I can always count on myself to get to my desired location because I keep trying.

This concept of “keep trying & keep turning” is something you and I can keep in the fore front of our minds when we’re feeling a little discouraged about where we find ourselves financially, physically, occupationally or even with our relationships.  As long as we try to make good decisions and keep acting to become who we want be, we’ll be successful.  Making small adjustments in what we do every day will add up to great things in the end.

Alexis De Tocqueville, a French political thinker and historian best known for his works Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution, wrote, “But what most strikes me in the United States is not the extraordinary size of a few projects; it is the countless numbers of small ones.”  He thought of the United States as a great nation as a result.

So, yes, you and I do make lots of wrong turns.  And, some times we don’t navigate our way through very well, but if we keep making countless numbers of small turns, aimed in the right direction, they’ll all add up to our benefit in the end. 

Keep trying. Keep turning. Thinking in this way will cause you to soon view yourself as being resourceful and successful.