March Into Action, Part IV: Double-Check Your GPS

Posted on May 04, 2020 by Gina DeRosa, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

(Original blog post from 3/24/2020. See all posts on Sixth Gear Series’ site.)

“Read the directions and directly you will be directed in the right direction.” – Lewis Carroll

Some of you were born with the gift of an accurate sense of direction. Let’s just say that I personally do not put the “G” in GPS. I celebrated the day when I got my first electronic GPS, which was so clunky compared to the fancy navigation systems that newer vehicles are equipped with now as well as the Waze app (even though I still don’t understand who at Google made the final decision to go with the sperm-shaped avatars to help us find the most efficient routes to take).

Since a young age, I’ve naturally played around with different ways of using words to express ideas, draw connections between concepts, or just make cheesy jokes to lighten the mood in a room. I developed a fascination with the different uses of language that are employed to convey context and illustrate the personalities and lives of the characters in the stories that we hear and that we tell. The main thing that drew me to coaching was hearing others’ stories about what they do or want to do that gives them purpose, enabling me to help people structure their stories in ways that enable them to accelerate their potential to achieve anything they desire in life.

As a little G, I got a kick out of the “who-what-when-where-why-how” saying, which many of us know or refer to as the 5W1H framework. (I was cool in other ways.) This tool is a key piece of the foundation on which we learn languages and effective ways of telling – or interpreting – a story. My reference to “story” in this context is the holistic vision for yourself that led you to identify a specific goal and to start working toward it with the ultimate aim of achieving your overall vision.

The 5W1H tool is a key component to any change process that you’ve embarked on because it helps you conduct periodic check-ins with yourself during your journey so that you validate or remind yourself of your story (vision), i.e. the reason you started in the first place. [Actually, from now on I’ll refer to it as the 5W2H tool because some folks appended it with How much, which adds an element of quantification; in other words, telling you to specify how much of whatever it is that you will need to propel you forward to accomplishment of your goal.] These periodic check-ins serve as your GPS (“goal progress status”), which you should double-check every so often to ensure that you are on the track you want to be on to achieve your goal.

The 5W2H tool is useful to you in two main ways:

ONE, using this tool will help you build a new goal or reframe an existing (or dormant) goal to help you simplify the process of achieving it. All too often we overthink and then get caught up in the “woulda-coulda-shouldas” (another thing I got a kick out of as a kid – until I realized how dispiriting and stagnating those words are!). It’s a simple way to start and then keep asking questions to stay focused on your commitment to yourself.

Here’s a basic template for you to get started:

- Who: Who will support me with my goal to X? Who might sabotage my effort to X? Who else might have experience with X whom I can talk with?

- What: What do I need to do more of/less of to achieve X? What else might get in my way of X? What have I done so far or in the past that has helped me X?

- When: When will I do A, B, C things that will help me X?

- Where: Where can I go to stay motivated to X? Where should I not go so that I can stay motivated to X?

- Why: Why is it important to me to X?

- How: How will I get myself back on track if I have a moment or day when I make choices that are not in alignment with my goal to X? How will I continue to celebrate my progress and stay positive about my ability to X when I have an off-day?

- How Much: How much time will I set aside each day to work toward my goal of X? How much prep work do I need to do to stick with a routine that keeps me on track to X?

TWO, using the 5W2H tool will help you craft the story you want to tell others with the overarching purpose of conveying to them the importance of your goal, with the anticipated responses of either championing your cause if they support you or walking away if they don’t! It’s a simple way to deepen your commitment to yourself and build resilience to roadblocks that you might encounter on your journey.

Using the template again, here is how you might tell your story (note: some of these things will be narrative you keep in your mind versus saying out loud, unless/until the person to whom you’re speaking starts to challenge your goal in any way):

- Who: My spouse is really supportive of my goal to X. For example, s/he does A, B, or C that help me stay focused.

- What: In the past, I was successful with X when I stopped doing A and maintained a habit of doing B.

- When: I prefer to do A in the mornings, but sometimes things come up that prevent me from doing such, so I make sure to have a back-up plan for each day so that I can find another time to do A, even if it’s for a shorter time.

- Where: I have limited Q and R [i.e. non-goal-oriented behaviors] to two nights per month. It’s helped me save cash, too!

- Why: It is important to me to X so that I can [insert long-term ultimate vision here].

- How: Whenever I have an off-day, I remind myself that every day is a new opportunity. I don’t beat myself up or give up on my goal, knowing that my ultimate purpose is worth the effort to get back on track.

- How Much: I make time for C on Sunday mornings. That way, I have Y for the week, which also saves me time to do whatever I want on weeknights after work.

When you’re a kiddo, you learn how to tell a story with the 5W2H framework. Now, it’s time for you to brush off the tool again to further develop your own story – your vision – to which your goals are connected to. The more you use your GPS to check in on your progress, the more confident you’ll be to share it with others, which will open up more possibilities to bring you closer to success! Either someone offers words of encouragement that fuel your process or they say something negative – which is crummy BUT is a teaching moment in that you learn an additional way in which someone might try to sabotage your plan, which better prepares you for a response in the future.

More positively still, someone might offer to join you in your efforts, either as an accountability partner to help keep you on track or to actually join with you in the activities so that they can learn from you and enjoy the benefits of the new behaviors for themselves. The more you share about yourself and your goals, the more gains you will experience as a result. You deserve success, and while not everyone will champion your cause and you might not have all of the information, experience, or resources to predict the outcome of each step toward your goal, your story will bring you a deeper sense of purpose within your self and show the world who you are and what you will achieve.