Mapping The Pursuit of Awesome - Part 2: Where are we now?

There's a scene in the classic 1963 film The Great Escape in which Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough sum up a crucial flaw in the POWs' plans for escape:

"We have maps of Germany, in fact we have all the information we need on the escape routes out of Germany, "But what we do not have.." says Attenborough's Roger Bartlett before being cut off.

"Is a clear idea of what's five hundred yards beyond those trees," explains McQueen as Captain Hilts.

It's an exchange which can be equally as useful at describing our plans for The Pursuit of Awesome. We already have a good idea of our destination and our goals, but we haven't yet taken stock of where we are and what is immediately surrounding us.

It's vitally important that we assess our current location (that is, our life and living situations at this point) before we can even start to think about plotting a course towards our destination. 

If we don't know where we are now, how can we expect to know to how get to where we we want to be?

It's like being completely lost in the middle of a forest in an unknown country and deciding on a whim that we want to get to Hartford, Connecticut.

Thankfully, assessing where we are now isn't all that difficult to do.

What is your life like now?

When I first started to think about my own Pursuit of Awesome back in early 2011, it was important to think about the kind of life I was leading.

I took some time to make a list of not only the things I didn't like about my life, but the things that I did, so that I'd be better equipped to pursue a life filled with less of the stuff I didn't want and more of the stuff I did.

It turned out that there was more on the negative side of the list than the positive, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Simply by attempting to pursue a life most awesome, I was convinced that my life would improve (which it did, tremendously), and all I had to do was figure out how I wanted it to improve.

What do you hope to hope to change about your life by achieving your goals?

If you're really quite content with your life, have no plans to change anything and are simply setting goals to have a great time jumping out of planes and such, then good on  you.

If however, you're like me (and most people I talk to), there's certain things you'd like to change or improve as you set out in pursuit of your destination.

Some things you might want to consider include:

• Finding a better job or completely changing your career
• Being healthier, fitter, stronger
• Quitting drinking or smoking
• Having a stable relationship or starting a family
• Having more money
• Having complete peace of mind
• Pursuing a dream you abandoned long ago once the daily grind of life took hold

Whatever it is you'd like to achieve, change or improve on your Pursuit of Awesome, write it down along with your list of pros and cons about your current situation. 

Having these things written down as you set about achieving goals and pursuing awesome will always help to keep you motivated, serving as a strong reminder of the life you once lead and hope never to return to.

What do you have that can help you with your Pursuit of Awesome?

Once we've figured out where we want to go and why we want to go there, it's important to next take stock of the things we have which can aid us on our journey.

If your plan is to lose weight and you have old exercise equipment in storage or even a Wii Fit video game that you've never played, you've already got the tools you require.

If goal is to start your own business and you have a laptop and a friend who is good at accounting, there's two things that can help you out right away.

Think of it like an inventory broken down into several parts:

• Material possessions (computers, furniture, anything and everything)
• Books, software, reference materials 
• Assets (cash, credit, house, car, valuables)
• Friends, family, colleagues
• Anything else you can think of

Write down anything and everything even if it doesn't seem like it will be useful right away so that you know everything you can possibly work with to help you achieve your goals.

What do you (or don't you) have that might stop you?
When you've worked out what you have to help you on your journey, you must also take note of any obstacles in your path.

Keeping in mind that you don't need absolute perfection to pursue your goals.

For example, a couple of my goals require a fair amount of money to be spent, yet when I started planning my own pursuit, I was in debt by several thousands. It was an obstacle, but one that I could (and have) overcome.

Some things that might stop you from achieving your goals may include:

• Time
• Money
• Skills
• Equipment
• Knowledge
• Health
• Relationship

Or a lack of any of the above. By surveying any obstacles which may arise, we can plan ways to overcome them.

What can you do about the things that are stopping you?

If money is an issue, did you note anything in your inventory that you could sell to get more? If time is holding you back, is there any activity (like watching television  that you can cut back on to free up more hours? If a lack of skills or knowledge is stopping you, how can you acquire these things?

To go back to my own example of money and debt that I mentioned earlier, I asked myself the questions above.

• I wrote down that one of the biggest negative aspects of my life was that not only was I in debt, but that I was also pretty terrible at dealing with financial matters.
• I wanted to change this so that I would be debt free, enjoy financial security and be better able to handle my finances.
• I took an inventory and noted that I had several items that I could sell of to help me pay off some old debts, and that I had several friends who could help me put my finances in order.
• I realised that it would be unfair to my friends to simply let them deal with my money matters for me and that I had to take responsibility for own affairs, yet didn't have the knowledge or confidence to do so.
• I did something about this by reading books on managing money and attending a course.

As a result, I now have more money (and a better way to manage it) to help me continue on my path of awesome.

Try it yourself, figure out where your life right now, and you can start to use that next week to figure out how you're going to get from here to your awesome destination.