“You Steer Where You Stare”

I was introduced to the saying “You steer where you stare” last year in my book club.  After some self-deprecation and admission of being directionally challenged with an unhealthy dependency on GPS, I spent some time thinking about the true intention of the saying. 

“You steer where you stare.”  Sounds like an important saying for driver training, doesn’t it? 

Over the past year, this saying has presented itself to me on many levels. 

Like, when my son was supposed to send me something quickly, but did not, and when asked about it admitted to getting sucked into social media. 

Or when I was late for an appointment because I picked up the home phone “quickly” when I really needed to be on the road already. 

Or when my other son did not get his chores done, because he was tending to a friend’s “crisis”. 

Or when my trainer called me to tell me she had stayed out too late, overslept, and would need to cancel my scheduled workout. 

All great examples of getting distracted by [add reason here], taking their eye off of the commitment, and in doing so missing the intended result. 

Off track.  Distracted.  Simply because of a redirection of one’s gaze.

Bringing it to work, at our daily stand-ups when you articulate your goals for the day; at the end of the day, did you deliver?  Admittedly, some days, at the end of my day, I have so many excuses why I didn’t meet my goal.  I absolutely need to reset my gaze and recommit.  Without recommitting, days become weeks that become months and before you know it you are off track. 

Repeat after me … you steer where you stare.  So simple, yet transformational thinking. 

This week, we wrapped up our quarterly/midyear performance conversation.  We discussed successes, accomplishments, and where our focus needs to be in the next six months.  So, let’s all commit to lock our performance objectives in our gaze.  So, at the end of the year, we have steered ourselves into success.

I want to challenge us all to use the stand-up to truly articulate what it is you will focus on delivering for the day and tie it back to the sprints and our performance objectives. 

Then, at the end of the day, celebrate the accomplishment (or recalibrate for tomorrow).

Success is achieved day by day by having our eyes on the prize. 

Happy Thursday all,

-srt