I believe that the Global Positioning System (GPS) has arrived just in time for people like me. I begin my journey thinking that I know exactly where I am going only to end up at a completely different destination.

I embarked on my personal and professional development journey many years ago. My route and time-line for each destination on my life-long journey was well planned. However, my journey has included several detours that have taken me over unfamiliar terrain, caused delays, and tested my ability to stay on track.

One memorable detour was an opportunity to go off the beaten path. This detour was the scenic route: a long pleasurable scenic route as I launched my consulting business in 1992 and nurtured a new rewarding relationship. When the time was right, I added professional coaching accreditation as an exciting new destination. I enthusiastically calculated a new route and time-line.

Then, a second and devastating detour. I was taken off my meticulously planned route by the sudden illness and the passing of my father followed by additional responsibilities for my mother’s care and the basic need to take care of myself.

This detour was not the scenic route!

For most of us, detours can be unsettling with difficult unfamiliar terrain, anxiety, and lost time. Even necessary pit-stops become an annoyance. We are anxious to make up lost time. Like children, we ask “When will we get there?”

When finally we do reach our destination, we appreciate that we arrived safely. Perhaps, we acknowledge and appreciate that we had the opportunity to see the landscape from a different viewpoint.That is very much how I feel about my personal and professional development journey.

These two detours in particular have provided opportunities to experience pivotal insights. Fortunately, I can appreciate that these insights enriched my overall experience as I arrived at not one, but several exciting destinations in 2007:

1. Contributing author to the book Awakening the Workplace, Volume II
2. Division P Toastmasters Evaluation Champion and 3rd Place at the District level
3. International Coach Federation Associate Certified Coach (ACC) accredited designation.

I am grateful and pleased to say that I arrived safely. I am ready to move on in my journey using my own internal form of GPS to guide me in plotting my route and defining my time-line.

Detours are inevitable. Attention to our family, our work, and our own self-care are necessary detours. I invite you to consider how you can re-frame detours in your personal and professional journey as opportunities to experience the landscape from a different viewpoint. If you get off track, simply recalculate your route and time-line. Above all, arrive safely!

PS: GPS is really helpful.