Do you ever have a time when you are driving along and completely zone out, miss a turn and not even realize it till you are miles away? You clearly know the route you were supposed to take, but your mind was in another place. Not paying attention to the present. You were fixated on the past, or future or a conversation you had or wish you had or the list of things you need to do and obligations you need to fill…for some reason you completely spaced out and didn’t go the way you should have gone towards your destination. Only to suddenly become consciously aware and have to turn around, back track your steps, go the right way and hope you didn’t miss something important or be delayed.

This happened to me the other day. I knew exactly where I was going, in fact there was only one turn to take to get there. I was concentrating so much on what I would be doing at my destination, that I missed the turn TO my destination.

This made me think about life in general and my life specifically. One day I woke up and found myself in a place I had never intended to be. Focused on building a future and achieving success but missing the success that was right in front of me. I had strayed from important relationships, the whole purpose I wanted success in the first place.

Hind sight is 50/50. And we can certainly learn from our past. What turn have you missed in your life that you might need to go back to and make?  You can’t get the lost time back. But you can be more present in the future.

So something crazy JUST happened to me…

As I just finished writing this piece, and I titled it “Missed Turn” I literally hit return on my keyboard.  I am on the deck and there is a bike race happening right now on the island. Hundreds of bikers have been pedaling past me for the past thirty minutes. Evidently the race route starts a block from my house goes somewhere around the island then comes back by my house. There is a man cheering and directing the bikers around the final turn. I just heard him yell to one of them, “Whoa, buddy wrong turn!” I can only imagine that biker was so focused on winning that he missed the correct turn to taking him finish line.

My advice for you today, pay attention and don’t miss the next turn you are supposed to take. It just might be the direction you need to win.