Why Do We Keep Ending Up in the Same Place?

While cleaning out old teacher training manuals recently, I came across an exercise that I have taught in one form or another for over twenty years. Looking through the pages brought back memories of students sitting quietly with a pencil in their hand, convinced they had a relationship problem, a job problem, a money problem, or a confidence problem. More often than not, twenty minutes later they were looking at the paper in front of them with a completely different understanding of what was actually happening.

One of the things that has fascinated me throughout my life is how often we repeat the same patterns without realizing it. We change jobs and somehow find ourselves having the same frustrations. We move across the country and bring the same unhappiness with us. We swear we will never date another person like the last one and somehow wind up sitting across from the same person wearing different clothes.

Over the years I noticed that most people did not lack information. Most already knew more than enough books, podcasts, videos, and experts to solve their problem. What they lacked was clarity. They could not see the pattern.

The exercise was originally designed to help people identify their core values and create a mission statement. Looking back now, I think it was doing something much more useful. It was helping people identify where their life was out of alignment with what mattered most to them.

That is why I dusted it off, removed all the industry-specific language, simplified it, and turned it into a short self-assessment called The Safety Compass.

The Safety Compass is not a course. It is not a certification. It is not a twelve-week transformation program. It is simply one of the most useful exercises I have ever taught packaged into a format that can be completed in about twenty-five minutes.

If you have been feeling stuck, frustrated, confused, or as though you keep arriving at the same destination despite your best efforts, I think this exercise may help you identify what is really going on beneath the surface.