Charting a course for your life without a plan and a personal mission statement is like sailing on the ocean without a compass. I heard a story of a man who was sailing from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas, and shortly after leaving the Florida coast, the boat’s radio directional finder stopped working, leaving the man without an accurate frame of reference to pinpoint his location. As a result the currents of the Gulf Stream pushed the boat further north than he’d anticipated–too far north to see the islands that were supposed to prompt him to turn south to Nassau.

Instead of sailing for nine hours before seeing land, he sailed for thirty six hours! This extended the time on the ocean without a frame of reference and taught the man two important lessons. First, when you sail out of sight of land, it feels as though you are sailing straight ahead. Only later when you examine your course do you notice the irregular path and the zigs and zags. Second, as the man worked to get the sails trimmed perfectly to sail as fast as possible, he had a sick feeling that he might just be heading in the wrong direction altogether.