Building Navigational Intelligence

Again, there are two ways to approach these optimizers—to simply do them and get the results, or to do them with awareness and build your navigational intelligence in the process.

We encourage you to consciously build your navigational intelligence. As you work on an optimizer, look for and seek to embrace the principles behind the optimizer—principles such as:

• Contribution

• Creativity

• Stewardship

• Trust

• Responsibility

• Kindness

• Courage

• Sharing

• Respect

• Love

• Work

• Service

• Forgiveness

• Celebration

As you learn to recognize and value these underlying principles, you become empowered to discover other, more personalized ways to apply them in your situation.

Also, evaluate your experience and be open to inspiration for insight and further application. At the beginning of this chapter we went through an exercise in discovering the “little things” that could make a big difference in your family life. Think about those things you identified. It was your navigational intelligence that empowered you to zero in on the specific, personalized things that could make the greatest difference in your unique situation. It is that intelligence that can also help you know when and how to do these things most meaningfully day by day.

As you read through the pages where we examined expectations and suggested optimizers, it was your navigational intelligence that helped you discern which ideas could be particularly meaningful or helpful to you. It can also help you effectively implement, evaluate, and course-correct.

Navigational intelligence can help you move through any season, any day, any moment of your life with confidence that you’re doing what matters most in your family—and in the most effective way. We encourage you to strengthen it. We also encourage you to be aware of the beauty and strength of each principle as you discover it, and to enjoy feeling it unfold in your character and in your life. Allow yourself to grow in confidence and trust in these timeless principles. Celebrate your victory every time you choose to live in harmony with them. This openness, this growing, this process of learning and living in harmony with universal principles, is one of life’s most satisfying experiences. It is the process of becoming.