Leaders, do you know what your GPS of success are?

From preventing natural disasters to improving supply chain efficiency and tracking automated teller machines, many Global Positioning System (GPS) oriented applications have been adding enormous value in our world. You are currently living a safer and more convenient life due to GPS. Without GPS, it will be challenging for you to make use of many innovative services in this sharing economy and reach the destinations that you are unfamiliar with, just to name a few. 

What is a GPS?

What is a GPS? In short, GPS is a satellite-based radionavigation system operated by the United States Space Force. It is a network of satellites that can be used to triangulate the exact location of something or someone on this planet. GPS allows you to track where something is (or you are) located, and more importantly, help you to project how to move something (or you) to the location that you desire. For average applications, one will need four GPS satellites to calculate a precise location on the Earth. But when you are using a high-performance drone, you will probably need to track your status quo against seven to twelve satellites or more.

Therefore, ask yourself this simple question…… have you wondered…… what are the satellites of your GPS of success? 

Purpose Anxiety, The New Norm

In this modern world, social media feeds are inundated with self-proclaimed influencers who advocate the imperatives on finding one’s purpose. In their empathetic and charming blogs, they work hard to inspire you to define your purpose. Some influencers even use FOMO (fear of missing out) tactics to make you feel a bit inadequate if you have not clarified your audacious purpose. 

Recent studies have shown that “purpose anxiety” is on the rise. The negative sentiments and stresses many people feel when they’re struggling to identify and affirm their respective purpose are way too self-consuming.  Not that having a purpose is bad. For many people, finding a purpose is not that challenging. But how will they know whether their purposes will shift drastically as they progress through life or not? Some of your yesteryears’ purpose statements may not find much relevancy in your current environment nor in your future. Additionally, oftentimes we forget that having defined a purpose is not going to help us to progress exponentially.

Nevertheless, while it could be helpful to consolidate your purpose, ideally, you should reserve more energy to define the satellites of your GPS of success and leverage them to measure your progress in life.

The Secret To Success Is ….

The underlying tenets for success in whatever pursuit you embark on will always be about how you have allocated your efforts and resources dynamically to reduce the gap between where you are and where you wish to be. You cannot adapt and improve what you cannot measure. You cannot measure effectively if you have not defined what measurements you need and how to measure them. Lastly, you cannot progress effectively if you are measuring the wrong aspects. 

The Satellites of Your GPS

The satellites of your GPS of success should not be about the wealth you wish to accumulate nor the seniority you wish to hold within an organisation. Those are lagging indicators. Purposes and goals are the summits you wish to reach. 

Instead, rather critically evaluate attitudes and efforts you have been exercising in your pursuits, and how you are exercising them. We believe that it would be more gratifying if you could intentionally measure how often and how well you have exercised courage, curiosity, honesty, abundance, gratitude, zestfulness and/or other self-enriching attitudes and efforts each and every week. Combining these “satellites” in different permutations will allow you to engender the tenacity, vulnerability, innovativeness, agility, and other value-multiplying character traits you will need along your journey. 

It’s time to invite yourself to live courageously and define what the satellites of your GPS of success should look like.

Written by Dr. Jefferson Yu-Jen Chen and Anne Duggan.
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