Is it … or is it not?

I was sitting in an office at one of my client’s sites recently, when one of the people that I was sharing the office with told me a story about when he was a teenager.

The story related to when this person was 15 years old (he is now over 40). It was all about how his father got him back on track after he started going off the rails as a teenager.

After coming home following late night out, his father simply asked him this question: is it or is it not …

His father then went on to clarify what he meant by that question. The meaning was this:

Is what you are doing now, and how you are acting now, getting you to where you want to be in your life? If yes, great, if not, it might be time to change something.

Apparently, it was a very calm conversation, though the result was amazing. Within a year, the 15 year old was back on the straight and narrow, and had joined the navy as an apprentice electrician. He still remembers that conversation as a life changing moment.

The moral of the story is to constantly ask yourself if you are getting the desired results. If you are not, you need to change something.

Remember, there is no failure, if you enjoy the process. If you are not getting where you want to be, just change your approach. Then, change it again, if you have to. You will get there, and you will achieve what you want to, with the right effort and persistence.

By the way, you won’t know if you are heading in the right direction unless you have mapped that out for yourself and set some goals – that is always the starting point.