You Are Here: From Milestones to Checkpoints

Here we are, just past the official midyear hump. It’s July.

What does July mean for you?

For some people, it's about school being out, family vacations, fireworks, backyard cookouts, and long evenings.

For others, it's the point in the year when those January goals begin whispering or perhaps taunting, "How's that going?"

For me, it has been all of those things, but I've found myself thinking about it differently this year.

One of my favorite things about public spaces like shopping malls, hospitals, airports, museums, and even hiking trails has always been the directory.

Before you can decide where you're going, your eyes immediately search for those magic words:

You Are Here.

Every good map directory begins with those words.

Every journey does too.

Those three words have never struck me as limiting. They've always felt freeing.

Years ago, when I first began my career in supply chain logistics, the first thing we learned was the importance of always knowing a shipment’s location. I spent a lot of time looking at the freight’s progress as it moved from where the shipment started to where it was meant to deliver.

But this wasn’t just simple observation. We tracked where they were supposed to be against where they actually were, and whether they were still on schedule. The point wasn't to assign blame. The point was recovery. If something was off track, we wanted to know early enough to do something about it.

There is another example of tracking checkpoints that all of us have likely lived through a number of times. Each time we step foot on an aircraft we are entering a sophisticated machine that runs on them.  The plane is always subject to drift, and together with today’s sophisticated instrument technology, the pilots are constantly bringing the aircraft back onto the flight plan.

But even as a passenger, we’re doing the same from whatever seat we’re in.

Is the flight on time? Early? Late? What does that mean? Is there a connection now in question? Are the arrangements we’ve made for going on from the destination airport still good? Is there someone who needs to know that our arrival time has changed?

What fascinates me is that sometimes we avoid checkpoints because we're afraid of what we might discover.

But finding yourself off course isn't failure. It's information.

The true failure would be refusing to look.

So why don’t we?

Our resistance may be because we see checkpoints as report cards.

• How am I doing?

• Am I behind?

• Have I failed?

Which brings me back to July.

July is my birthday month. 70 is behind me. What is surprising to me is that 71 feels more urgent than 70 did.

As I’ve thought about that, I think it is because at some point, birthdays stop being scorecards and become navigation markers. It can happen at any age. It’s definitely happening for me at this one.

Seventy was definitely a milestone. One of those “big” birthdays, like turning 16, or 21, or 30.

Seventy-one is a reminder that the journey continues. It’s a checkpoint.

I've stopped measuring my life by milestones and started navigating it by checkpoints.

Most mid-year reflections are about how we are doing on our goals.

But goals change. And sometimes that’s a good thing. What matters more is knowing where we’re at.

When we take the time to look up intentionally to see where we are, we experience one of the highest points of agency we can claim.

We’re saying, given where we are now, what comes next?

All navigation begins with knowing where we are.

You are here.

There's something wonderfully non-judgmental about those words.

When you walk up to a public directory, it doesn't criticize your location.

When you look at a trail map, it doesn't shame you for not being farther along.

When you open a GPS tracker, it doesn't ask why you took a wrong turn.

It simply starts with reality.

You are here.

Now let's figure out where to go next.

I’m seeing this birthday (and July) differently now because turning 71 isn't really about age.

It's one of my "You Are Here" signs.

Perhaps it is a "You Are Here" sign for all of us.

Pause for a moment.

Take a look around.

You are here.

Now we can ask the questions that matter most:

• What story is my current life telling?

• What part of that story is bringing me closer to where I hope to go?

• Where have I drifted?

• What is one small adjustment I can make right now?

I invite you to look honestly at the story your life is telling today—not the one you hoped to be living, or the one you think you should be living, but the one that's real.

Whether we're navigating a business, a relationship, or our walk with God, honest awareness is never something to fear. That's where wisdom and direction begin.

And perhaps that's why those three little words have always felt less like a warning and more like an invitation:

You are here.