Come Back on Course...
When you've veered off-path...is there an easy way back?
Stay Neutral - Come Back To Center
Last week, I managed to run over a lobster pot buoy while driving Navigator through the coastal waters of Maine.
“So what?”, you might think.
Here’s what:
It means shutting down the boat and floating adrift in hundreds of feet of water while “someone” dives beneath the hull — into the 58-degree Maine ocean, with a knife — to cut the propeller free from a snarl of tangled rope.
(The term is “fouling the prop” for those interested in boat lingo.)
Fortunately, I’d forgotten my wetsuit.
Dave, however, had his.
(Full disclosure: I was never going down there, even wrapped in a mink coat— my former professional diver husband seemed made for this task.)
Knocked Off Course
The whole escapade took almost an hour.
And when Dave was safely back on board, we realized we’d drifted a full mile off our charted course.
Fortunately, we hadn’t bashed into any of those jagged Maine coastline rocks.
So after duly praising the Gods of Fouled Props, when we started the boat’s navigation system again, it simply:
Showed us where we were
Where we were aiming, and
Steadfastly began correcting
It wasn’t immediate.
Just a steady, forward-looking adjustment — not focused on how far off course we’d drifted, but on the path ahead.
Return to Center
With a lot of time to look dreamily out to sea, I became a little obsessed with watching how the navigation system brought us back on course.
Again and again.
We were pushed off course constantly — by wind, waves, obstacles — things we couldn’t control.
But the navigation system just noted the discrepancy, recalibrated and brought us back to center.
My obsession wasn’t that the system kept us on-course.
It was how it handled being off-course.
No hand-wringing or looping thoughts of “why” or “how” it happened.
No envisioning worst-case scenarios or problems.
It was matter-of-fact, almost devotional in it’s neutrality.
No fuss, no story, no looking back.
Just: Where are we now? Okay. From Here.
Destination - the idyllic anchorage
We needed something to steer toward.
Otherwise, we’d just bob around like a cork, getting pushed by whatever wind, waves or obstacles came along.
The destination didn’t lock us into a route.
But it did give us something to keep coming back into alignment with.
Detours and Waypoints
The course wasn’t straight.
Sometimes, it looked like a big detour, as we avoided shallow ledges, being led in seemingly the opposite direction from what we wanted.
But it was still the best path.
And the system only focused on the next waypoint, not the entire journey.
When that waypoint was reached, it would focus on the next.
I often get the guidance:
Focus on the next step, and then the next. One step and then another.
I was being given the illustrated version (below).
Spacious, Gradual and No Judgement
Spaciousness is our friend. - We had plenty of time to reach our destination before nightfall so our mishap started to feel a little more like an adventure than a high-stress, high-stakes situation. (Dave might have another version of this). Create Space. Obstacles are much easier to navigate when every inch of time and energy isn’t spoken for.
Correction can be gradual. The boat didn’t make any immediate dramatic turns. It didn’t need to wrench back into alignment.
Sometimes, you make a small adjustment and discover later that you’re back on course.
Navigation is Forward Facing. The system doesn’t waste energy asking why you drifted away 20 minutes ago. It just needs that info to help orient you now.
There’s no Moral Judgement in being off-course. It’s just information to notice where you are. Adjust. Come back to center.
If regret or an old thought happens to slip in now, I picture that forward-looking, utterly neutral navigation chart.
Come back on course.
Not back to where you were. Forward from where you are.
It seems the question isn’t:
How do we stay on-course?
But rather:
How do we become as skilled at coming back to center as we are at planning?
Doing this with a supportive community helps. A lot.
For You:
How do you get back to Center and On-Course, when you’ve drifted?
Here are a few reflections that might help…
Where in your life have you drifted off course — and what would one small adjustment back toward center look like?
What are you ready to stop looking back at, and simply navigate forward from here?
What’s your next waypoint — the one thing you can orient toward from exactly where you are now?
Tell us your experience…
Was there a time when you found yourself “off course”?
How did you get back to your path?
Leave a comment to share your wisdom…our stories help others in ways we can’t imagine!
They help us remember to:
Live with our Lights Turned On
As always, thankyou for reading!
May your path unfold with grace and ease and may you love the journey.
With Love, Diane
Diane! This message is so needed right now, thank you for sharing. I love how you found such depth in your experience (no pun intended, for once lol). It reminded me of the quote about the Apollo moon rockets being off course 97% of the time, but they still got to the moon. Loving this message so much.
The only course correction I am certain of these days, is to keep returning to my heart; it knows the way.