How Expert Guidance Lead Me Astray

Yesterday I learned some valuable lessons on setting goals and reaching your destination and how the experts don't always have the right answers.

Let me tell you the story.

My wife and I were taking our daughter to Piccadilly station in Manchester to catch a train back to university after her 21st birthday dinner.

Manchester is not a city that I'm really familiar with and so I had set up our NEW SatNav to what I thought was the place we needed to get to to drop her off.

So then I ceased to worry about getting there and I handed responsibiliy over to the Expert. Getting within about a mile of our destination was easy, just the way I had imagined it was going to be. Then things started to go wrong. A road closed for road works created a diversion. My expert confidently re-calculated my route and sent me around another way, but it became apparent that he was trying to get me back to the road-block.

At this point both my wife and my daughter stepped in with the obvious. Follow the signs to Piccadilly station! This is what I would always have done before my guru (Mr. SatNav) came on the scene but I was so accepting of his expert status and so concentrating on what he had to tell me that I hadn't even noticed the signs. He complained bitterly and kept re-calculating my route and despite being within sight of my destination he wanted me to steer away from it!

I was by now getting really wound up with my expert, my journey, the traffic and finding parking and so on, that when I eventually pulled up in a restricted zone to let my daughter out, I almost forgot to get myself out of the car and give her a hug and wish her safe journey.

I hope you know where I'm going with this.

Lessons I learnt?

• Don't get me wrong, I'm not against SatNavs or Experts. Be careful how you use both.
• Make sure the goal that you have set is really where you want to go.
• Don't hand over responsiblity for getting there to an "expert" or "guru".
• Don't get so focussed on following instructions that you don't realize you're not getting where you want to go.
• Keep your eyes on all the signs that you're getting to your destination (or not).
• Listen to those around you. They may have noticed things that you have missed. (Like the obvious!)
• Don't get so involved in your goals that you forget what really matters.