HAVE YOU EVER found yourself driving down the road on autopilot, then realized you’re heading the wrong direction?

This morning, I dropped my daughter off at a restaurant to meet up with friends. My plan was to continue on to the UPS store to mail a couple of packages, then stop by Whole Foods for a few items, then head back home.

Instead, I began thinking about the project waiting on my desk, turned right instead of going straight ahead, and woke up a few minutes later to the fact that I was driving in the wrong direction.

You know what I instantly did next … right?

Did I turn around?

Not immediately.

FIRST I debated the idea. After all, I’d already driven towards home a ways … why not just keep going? I could come back later in the day, or even tomorrow, to run errands.

THEN I decided I’d rather get those things done now than leave them hanging. I was still considerably closer to the shops I needed to visit than I would be at home.

SO I made a left, circled back around, and got back on track.

Here’s Why That Matters to You

Let’s say you want to lose some weight, so you’ve decided to eat for strength instead of pleasure. It’s day two of your new diet, and you absentmindedly find yourself biting into a doughnut.

What now?

Do you say, “Well, I’ve blown it already, so I may as well eat the whole pack and start again tomorrow!” … or do you stop yourself, turn around, and get right back on target?

If you’re like me, most of the time you throw in the towel and pig out.

The same goes for your plan to write that book, get trained up for that new career, or start going to the gym regularly.

Here’s a lesson to take to the bank: You’re going to stumble along the way. It’s all but inevitable. You’re a human being, and you’re apt to get distracted or develop a crappy attitude and stop caring as deeply as you did when you began.

Here’s how to stay on course: Do The DEEP.

I’m not saying that because I wrote the program. I’m saying that because the program WORKS. It’s a proven, field-tested method to help you keep walking in the direction you most want to go.

Life is serious stuff, my friend, and it goes faster than any of us ever imagine. There’s no time to waste. None.

Here’s where to go for info: The DEEP.

Write me. Let’s talk about it.

— Don

Some people seem to know who they are and what they want from life right from the get-go. God bless them. I’ve often wished I would’ve been born one of them. They are straight-liners. They set out for a goal, accomplish the goal, then set another. As long as there’s another mountain to climb, they’re happy campers.

Others are content with a circle of repetition that never really goes anywhere. Maybe an okay job, or an okay marriage, or an okay spiritual life. They don’t make waves, and they don’t put on airs. They go round and round and round… sometimes really wanting to take a risk or make a change, but never figuring out how to break the pattern.

Me, I’m a spiral sort of guy. From a short-term perspective, my path looks like a circle. I’ll go day after day or month after month focused on a project or thought, wrestling with it like Jacob with the angel… until I finally get the blessing from it.

Sometimes that blessing is a new understanding or a new skill. Sometimes it’s the realization that something I thought I wanted isn’t what I needed. Sometimes, there’s a breakthrough that dramatically changes my direction. My life is a spiral, consistently headed towards home.

Here’s what The DEEP does: It takes circles and spirals and helps them get a taste of the solid direction straightliners have. And it helps straightliners get a taste of what the circles and spirals see.

Everybody needs something. None of us has it all figured out or has it all in a bucket. We need one another. That’s what The DEEP does: It helps us grow. It helps us mature. It helps us do what we’ve never been able to do before.

FAST.

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You know the feeling.

You’re at a crossroads. A decision point. A Frost-like place where two roads diverge in the woods.

Which path to choose? You know you can’t travel both.

Your decision will likely make a profound difference in your life.

Should you marry that person? Take that job? Move to another state or country?

It’s tough stuff.

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And there are times when we freeze with fear and put off making the decision at all.

That’s even tougher. The anxiety is intense.

Or maybe you don’t get to make the decision about what happens.

Maybe it’s a game-changing event you have no control over.

Your option is about how to react, what to do about the situation.

Now what?

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A roadturn can simply be something someone said, something that had a profound influence on your thinking from that point forward.

My own first conscious experience with the phenomenon was seeing the video of Paul Potts at the Britain’s Got Talent contest in 2007. Paul’s courage in the face of fear, doubt, and social opposition helped me gain the courage to take my own chance and let go of the need for “absolute security.”

I’ve written about that experience several times on this blog. Here’s one of those posts: The Road Not Taken. And I love hearing from others about their own roadturn experiences.

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Since 2007, my path has been one of developing a career in marketing and copywriting. I help businesses (and I especially love small, entrepreneurial businesses) get better known, reach more customers, and sell more stuff.

I love the work, and I love seeing others grow their dreams.

But my own primary fascination centers on Roadturn: not the carrying out of the dream so much as how one comes to see, believe, and take action in the first place.

That’s exactly what a training program I created for a Small Business Development Center (SBDC) incubator is about. It takes would-be entrepreneurs from the “I have an idea” stage to the “I can do this” stage.

That program is the most powerful way I know of to deal with roadturn situations and stay on track.

Roadturn readers can get the audio version of The DEEP absolutely free. All I ask is that you respond with your feedback after each session in order to get access to the next.

The DEEP can absolutely change your life. Find out how by clicking here: GO DEEP!

Walter Bond, former NBA shooting guard, posed a question this week that took me back to my journey as a Religious Studies student and my introduction to the writings of the enigmatic monk, Thomas Merton.

Bond says that what he misses most about playing professional basketball is being a member of a team bent on believing they are “the best in the world.”

Walter Bond’s Huddle

To regain that camaraderie, he has just launched a project: The Peak Performers Huddle — and he asked me to help with the copywriting.

A job like that, of course, is right down my alley. Thinking and writing about how people make “roadturns” in their lives is the foundational topic of this blog.

Bond holds a weekly conference call with Huddle members. He goes over a section of the game plan, answers questions, and gives the team their weekly assignments. It’s a powerful time of getting together and committing to action.

Last week, the idea of “Doing” and “Being” came up. Now, you might expect an NBA shooting guard to preach the virtues of doing what it takes to win. You know, daily time in the gym and on the court … sacrificing everything for the game.

That’s not what Walter Bond said, though.

Bond says we must first “Be” before we can adequately “Do.” He says it is vital to aim for excellence in all areas of our lives — in our families, in the community, and in our spiritual lives … not only at work.

I came away from that Huddle with a renewed determination to put prayer and meditation in front of my day. By personal experience, I can tell you there are no more important actions I can take than to pray and meditate. By personal experience, I can also tell you those are actions I take least in my life.

So far, this week, I’ve kept my resolve. Walter Bond’s Huddle has a private Facebook Group where we hold one another accountable. That has helped.

And knowing that 6’5″ Walter Bond is watching my performance … that has helped.

But there’s one more thing that is keeping me on track with this roadturn — something my college professor (who knew Merton personally) told me, something Tom Merton harped on repeatedly:

Don’t just do something, stand there!

Until I have become centered, until I remember who I am and where I am headed … my frantic actions become a “beating at the air.” For real progress, my very first action is to stop.

Wishing you great joy and success.

Don