It is not uncommon for the communication I have with people to be around clarifying what it is that they want. I thought that this post could give you something to play with to help bring you some more clarity about where you are now, and where you want to be heading.

I don’t know if you drive, but for the purpose of this example pretend that you can 🙂 Imagine that you are a taxi driver and the only instruction that a passenger said when they got into your taxi is “Drive” giving no indication of where specifically they actually wanted to go. Now it’s possible that by complete chance you could end up where it is that they wanted to be, but it’s not that likely.

Now this is obviously a strange day because your next passenger does give you slightly more information, this time they say, “I don’t want to go to Alphabet Street”. Now there is possibly a slightly higher chance that you would end up where they wanted to go than your first passenger of the day, the one that just said “drive,” but again chances are that it’ll be somewhere else.

You are no doubt quite happy to see your next passenger who by comparison to your earlier fares can tell you precisely the address that they want to go to. As a taxi driver you know that there are several different routes that you could take to get there. You decide to take the next right turn and carry on to the next crossroads. Once you reach the cross roads you can check what the traffic is like there and decide if you want to stay on this route or change to a different one. You know that there are many different points in this journey that you can do this, so the only thing you have to decide upon is the very next step.

I suspect that I don’t need to point out that it is the third passenger that is much, much more likely to get to where they want to go.

There is a theory that says that our unconscious mind interprets what we tell it literally. When I am working with someone on this I “try on” what has been said and see what happens when I literally take what has been said to see how clear that message is that we’re giving to our internal taxi driver 🙂

I invite you to play with clarifying what it is that you want.

1. You get to pick the context, by all means pick what it is you want to take your life to the next level. If you are not used to doing this you may find that answering the question what it is that you want in your entire life is a huge topic. In which case you may want to start in a smaller context, what do you want to do this week, or this evening or maybe even in the next hour?

You could also pick a particular area of your life, for example work or whereever it is you want to be changing direction.

Decide upon what you want to play with for the purposes of this exercise.

2. Just for 2 minutes write down whatever comes into your head to the question what do you want? Don’t try and edit yourself, just get onto paper the answers that spring to mind.

3. Re-read what you have wrote and notice which of the 3 passengers your answers are like? Make life easier and make sure you know how you will know you have got to where you want to go.

So for example, your answer may have been that you don’t want to feel nervous when speaking in team meetings at work. This is like the second taxi passenger, what would you like to feel instead? In which case, the answer may become, “I want to feel enthusiastic when speaking in team meetings at work.”

Perhaps your answer already fitted with the third type of passenger – in which case what would be the very first step for you to take. So in the example “I want to feel enthusiastic when speaking in team meetings at work” maybe the next step would be to decide to speak at Tuesday’s team meeting, perhaps it’s deciding ahead of time about a subject that you are enthusiastic about or the next step is talking to your line manager about it … Make it easy, identify the very next step at the rate and speed that’s right for you.

4. It’s up to you then if you want to take that next step or not.

Bonus tip: Want to play further? Repeat the exercise with the question; what would I love to do?

This post was originally posted on my blog Your Changing Direction, which contains lots of pieces about general life improvement.