Personal Orientation: Path to “True North”

Who do you talk to more than anyone else in the world? Yourself. You question yourself. You talk to yourself. You answer yourself. During the in the course of the day, you talk to yourself next number of times.

In the Icarus Deception, Seth Godin talks about the fact that we are our own worst managers. In fact, he says that if we had to work for the manager in our head, we would quit.

Ancient Map to Jerusalem

In the Middle Ages, Jerusalem or “the East” was the center of the world. one would orient themselves by in reference to Jerusalem (the center of the world), or the Orient. From architecture to burial (see below)

orient, v. To place or arrange (a thing or a person) so as to face the east; spec.  (a) to build (a church) with the longer axis running due east and west, and the chancel or chief altar at the eastern end;  (b) to bury (a person) with the feet towards the east.

Etymology: French orienter (1680; c1485 in Middle French as participial adjective orienté )

-Oxford English Dictionary

The problem that we have in these conversations with ourselves, is that we have a lack of orientation. We make judgments and criticisms and conversations in our own head based on a false sense of direction of true North. I wrote about the 100 criticisms that we tell ourselves, which is like driving through the city knowing that you’re lost and continuing to tell yourself how dumb you are for getting lost.

While I think we need to have our own, personal constitution that deflects and directs our path when we drift, we need something outside ourselves–someone that assists with our personal orientation.  A compass is a device that gives you relative information based on your relative position to “true north.” In life, our reference points are sometimes those around us: speaking into us and nudging us when we get a little off course.

I wrote a post yesterday asking people to share 4 encouraging 4 words with 5 friends. It was interesting to see people share positive guideposts to their friends. Do you have a way finder or a guide?


Jeremy Floyd

Jeremy Floyd is the President at FUNYL Commerce. Formerly, he was the CEO and President of Lirio, Bluegill Creative, a marketing and communications firm in Knoxville, Tennessee. In addition to managing the digital strategies, Floyd was an adjunct professor for the University of Tennessee Chattanooga MBA program teaching digital strategies and social media. Floyd blogs at jeremyfloyd.com and tweets under the name @jfloyd. Jeremy is licensed to practice law in the State of Tennessee and holds a law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from MTSU in English and Philosophy.