Headlights on a Dark Road

Examining Commitment and Focus

How can anyone travel for hundreds of miles, across countrysides seldom or never seen before, in the the dark, and reasonably expect to get there? What's more, how can we expect to travel through this dark countryside quickly, efficiently and effortlessly?

Well, we do this every day. When we drive at night, the headlights illuminate a 30-50 metre area dirtectly ahead of us. Can we see in the darkness beyond? No. But it is enough to know that we can see immediately ahead of us where we are going, and to have a map (even if just a mindmap), and confidence in one's road.

The analogy of The Road is adequate for the Journey of our Lives. While it may seem subtle and even implicit, when we drive at night we are committed to a destination, and while our focus may subconciously be that destination, while we may have it in the back of our minds and in our thoughts, our focus has to be on what we are doing right now on the road. Failure to focus jeapordises our ever reaching the destination. Failure to commit to a destination (before we drive off into the night) means we will almost certainly get lost.

The Darkness is a metaphor for the unknown, for the future. It is neither benign nor bad, it is simply what it is. But we need to illuminate our way through, and for that we need consciousness, truth, facts, ideas, impressions and visuals. The imagination, intelligence, intentions and our motivations form the filters that enlighten our journey. Our focus determines whether we distort the shadows, or to what extent we follow the white lines strapped into the dark Macadam.

Commitment is the reason behind where we need to go. Motivation is the fuel that gets us there. Both spring from Identity. Identity is who we are; our Mission and Purpose. All these things place us in a harmonious domain, or drive us towards a new environment, a scenario that we have invariably pictured or planned for. But that is not enough. Once we arrive, new courses of action, often painful decisions, have to be made. Because it is once we reach our destination that we discover the vital truth about our journey. Was the use of time and resources well used? Is it good to be where we have arrived?

Having reached one's destination, the real work begins. As Springbok coach Jake White said: to win the World Cup you have to make a decision, and then go out and get it. It's not enough to get into the Final. In the same way, Destination is about active decision-making, Dancing on Your Toes. And reality here, a win, a loss, a draw, determines how long we remain where we are, and what our next destination ought to be.