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Do you have parts of your life that you want to change? Do you know exactly what you need to do to change them? Do you go to bed every night knowing you did nada to make that change happen?

I’ve been there. I’ve watched others get there. I even developed a model to explain what happens and why. And the best part is, this model can help you go from a good idea to a lasting life change.

From Data to Knowledge to Action

Most of the mental “stuff” of the world starts out as raw data. These are things like our personal observations, scientific research, financial reports, political speeches and lots of other collections of “bits.” Most of it is meaningless noise that our brains naturally filter out. For example, if you live in an urban area, you probably see thousands of advertisements every day . Yet, at the end of the day you may remember one or two.

For data to become knowledge (What I Know) it has to go through some processing and contextualization. The good news is that there are many sources that do this for us automatically. The nightly news, doctors, the Federal Reserve and even this blog are all examples. The bad news is that you have to decide if you trust what those sources have to say. Even so, let’s assume that most data aggregation and reporting sources are 75% reliable. That means that the majority of your data to knowledge transformation work is already done for you.

For knowledge to become action (What I Do) well, YOU actually have to DO something. This could mean performing an action once, or it could mean establishing a life long habit. No one can do this for you.

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Alex Shalman has created an awesome interview series and group writing project for February asking at least one blogger per day to share his or her definition of happiness. I’ve been following this series all month a have really enjoyed some great interviews with people like Darren Rowse, Jeremy Shoemaker, and Gretchen Rubin. In the spirit of the project, I took some time to think about what happiness means to me and share it in this space

The Questions
1. How do you define happiness?

For me, happiness is the sweet spot that happens when I’m moving toward my ideals at a steady pace. Through lots of trial and error I’ve come to realize that I like to move along at the pace of a gently flowing river. If I try to go too fast I become like a flood - full of debris and turmoil. However, if I don’t put enough effort into my progress, I stagnate and begin to recede as if in a drought.

2. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your happiness now, versus when you were a child?

I’m much happier now than as a child. When I was a kid, I didn’t have a lot of room for self-determination or pursuing my own goals. Although I had a good childhood overall, I would say I was usually about a 5 on the happiness scale. Now I try to always remain conscious of my choices and my level of responsibility to create my own happiness. Most days I’m probably a 7 or 8 on the scale and that has been increasing over the past few years. [Read more →]

In 2008, what will your path look like?

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This is the time of year when we all sit around and think about ways that we can torture ourselves over the next twelve months in the hope that our suffering, guilt, pain and knee injuries can somehow leave us better in December than we are today. The impetus for this cycle usually begins with a New Year’s Resolution, but it could also be called a Goal. In this post, I’ll argue that traditional goals aren’t the only path to a happy and rewarding life.

S.M.A.R.T. is No Way to Go Through Life, Son
All the traditional advice about self improvement and goal setting teaches that we should set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound (S.M.A.R.T.) to be optimally successful. In this line a thinking, it’s bad to have a resolution to be more physically fit this year. A great resolution would be, “I want to complete a 5K running race in under 25 minutes by June this year.”

This is all well and good for things that are simple in concept and easy to quantify, but I think this way of formulating goals really misses out on a key point: Humans aren’t good at figuring out what specific actions will make them happy.

I’m sure if you think about it hard enough, you can come up with the name of a person that you know who set very specific goals, worked toward them relentlessly, achieved those goals, and is completely and utterly miserable because of it. In my experience, there’s one in every family (Hi, cuz)

It seems to me that we are pretty good at figuring out what Feels Good, but not at identifying the actions that will get us to those feelings. When we become hell-bent on their being One Best Way to achieve our goals, we become blind to other paths and choices that may be more efficient, pleasurable or accessible.

That’s why we need to be more nimble in our planning.

The Compass Approach
Being nimble is the whole idea behind the Compass, Not a Map approach to life planning. By choosing a direction to travel in, but not a specific path to take, you leave many options open and have the ability to adapt as circumstances shift around you.

For example, you may decide that you want to become an expert in Information Technology. At this point in time, one programming language may be preeminent in your chosen field, but we all know that code comes and goes. As you work in the direction of your dream, you can choose the specific tools and routes that are best suited to the moment without locking yourself into one confined area.

By using the Compass Approach, you keep your eyes open to the world and are better able to accept opportunities as they come. You are also able to recognize when a slight shift in direction might actually be the crooked path that is faster than the straight line.

An Example From My Life
Just two days ago, I was writing about my image for the future year and a specific step that I want to take this month to get closer to that image. What I didn’t write about was several more steps that I charted out on a long car ride. Without even realizing it, I had locked myself into a pretty rigid schedule for the next month. All of the activities that I pre-selected were good and helpful, but they didn’t leave me any room to be nimble.

Well, another opportunity has presented itself and I’ve had to readjust my plans. This is a move that has the potential to move me along in the direction of adding more value to my blog, but it does so in a different way than I had envisioned. I don’t think it will affect my Sunday afternoon planning sessions, but it will probably interfere with some of the other activities I sketched out, so they will have to go if necessary.

Isn’t it great how life teaches us exactly what we need to learn?

Have you ever had the opportunity to learn to be nimble because life brought you new opportunities? Take a moment to share your story in the comments.

Photos courtesy of Bluedaisy and Weirdvis. As always, credit for Compass, Not a Map goes to Stephen Shapiro and his awesome book, Goal-Free Living.