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Reading with Amayah
August 14, 2024
By Daniel Francis
I wear many different hats, from a Leadership Development Coach to an author to a Social Media Marketing Agency owner. This means that my days are never the same.
On a Monday, I could be directing a video shoot, and on a Tuesday, I could be in front of my laptop on a virtual call coaching someone. I like it this way because it brings a lot of variety and excitement to each day.
I also love to put a plan together and execute it well. If you are anything like me, it can be difficult to accept when the plan does not come together well. For a person who is juggling so many different things, it can be a very frustrating experience, but such is the way of life.
I recently started coaching two incredibly talented young women, teaching them about the foundations of personal development and how they can use this to take charge of their lives.
I am most alive when I am guiding someone to be their best self and I want to share an important metaphor that I shared with them in our last session. It was pretty funny because as I was saying it to them, it occurred to me that I needed to hear this exact thing.
I was talking to them about writing down their goals and how it’s not only important to write their goals but to lay out, in a very clear and concise manner, the smaller steps that are involved in achieving those goals.
I also mentioned the dynamic nature of goals, meaning, that things can change in an instant and we must be adaptable enough to adjust on the go. I gave the metaphor of creating a goal or planning for your future as drawing a map.
On this map, you can see where you are and you have to provide details of the surrounding terrain especially the terrain between where you are and where you want to be (the achievement of your goals and your future success).
In detailing the terrain, you will typically use the knowledge and experience you have to chart out what you expect. You may even get some guidance from those who have made the journey themselves, which helps you to add even more detail.
You complete the map, and it looks perfect. You set out on your journey with everything you need in tow. However, while on the journey, you are having difficulties. Many of the elements in your map are not exactly where they are meant to be.
Some of the mountains are a lot steeper than you thought so you have to walk around, prolonging the journey. You did not consider some important factors, like the breaks you would need to take during the journey and stopping to resupply.
The map does not exactly match the terrain. In that moment, you have to decide what your reaction will be, to allow frustration and anger to take over or accept that this is all part of the process and adjust.
We make plans and God laughs. Writing this piece made me think of this. He sees all and He knows all. Oftentimes, we create this perfect idea of how we want our lives to look and feel. Yet when it does not happen in that exact way, we believe that we are failures or that our lives are over.
Yet God knows that we are exactly on the path that we need to be on. Our map may not match His map so we must be open to the possible deviations. Once we include God in our plans, we must be able to have faith in His plan.
Even when you can’t imagine how the path in front of you can lead to an outcome that you want, trust not what you see and feel, but trust in God. For He can make the impossible possible.
Daniel Francis is a millennial helping other millennials. He is a two-time author of the books The Millennial Mind and The Millennial Experience, and an entrepreneur. Over the past four years, he has served as a Personal Development Coach whose work targets Millennials and helps them tap into their full potential. He is also a self-publishing coach and has guided hundreds on self-publishing their book successfully.
LinkedIn: Daniel Francis
IG: o.m.publishing
Website: www.ompublishing.org
