It once was true that in order to understand the direction you were heading, you needed to know the story of the stars. Ursa Major. Ursa Minor. These two lead you to find the direction known as north and from there, with some careful steps, you can navigate your way at sea. For many centuries, this is how sailors found their way, and it worked to some degree, but when the sky was clouded and when the sea was too rough, or when the sky didn’t look familiar, or when it was day-time, there was nothing but to trust that you were heading in the right direction.

More often then not, you found yourself traveling one direction in daylight, and another at night.

Not only was it possible, but also more than likely it was such that you would spend more time traveling in a direction you did not want to be going than you would spend making progress towards your final destination. If you were not careful and diligent about checking your progress, you could end up in a place in which you never meant to arrive.

But it was only when it was finally discovered that a magnetized piece of metal that is suspended and free floating, could point in one direction every time that navigation became something anyone could do at any time of day. With a glance at a mechanism designed to hold this metal, a sailor could ascertain which direction their vessel was heading and they could correct their course of travel. Before they knew it, trips became shorter and shorter as sailors found just how powerful it is to know which way they were going.

Your Compass

Compasses are tools of values. Your compass points to what is valuable to you and what you think is important. It is the tool that you check to express your needs and your desires. If your compass is pointing to power as most important, you will seek power. If your compass points to strength as important, you will move in the direction to gain strength. Wherever your compass points, that is where you will move, not because you take stock of your compass, but because it is tied directly into your nature to go where it is pointing.

Something to keep in mind when at sea is the fact that, if you are far enough away from shore to no longer see the land that you know well, you are going to be traveling blindly until you come to another landmark that you recognize. That is, unless you have a compass to guide you. Before we even begin to talk about what your compass is and before you can truly decide what it is that is your compass, you ought to know how a compass works.

A compass aligns with the Earth. Within the interpersonal life of anyone, the compass is the thing that aligns with the way the world works for you. If you say that everything is about power, then your compass aligns with power. If money, your compass aligns with money. If happiness, then your compass aligns with happiness.

So now we come to discussing your own compass, and to do that I think it is best to answer some questions.

In what do you place your faith, what is it that you trust above all else?

When you are under duress, where do you turn?

What makes you do the things you do?

Do you believe in something that gives you meaning or helps you cope with the craziness of the world that others generally accept to be true as well?

 

If you find it difficult to answer these questions because you generally don’t think in this way then try to look back at what you have done in the past week. Do you agree with how you have acted or do you wish that you had gone another way? This can help you understand your compass and also give you insight into the direction that it points. If you dislike the direction that you are going, then it must be pointing in a different direction than what you have done. If you are encouraged with what you have done then it may be that it is pointing in the same direction as what you have done.

Now that we have answered these questions,