A friend of mine who doubles as a pilot and a surgeon likes to say that in flying, taking off is optional. Landing is required. It helps to have a compass that works and that you know how to use in order to fly and land well. He’s learned a lot through his experiences as a pilot, and recently he shared with our board a few principles about what it means to find true north. Like most people, I just assumed that a compass was always right. What I didn’t realize was that there are three factors that impact the accuracy of a compass: variation, error, and deviation. Imagine my surprise when I started to realize the work needed to adjust my own inflight compass this past week.

The first factor that impacts a pilot’s compass is variation. Apparently the magnetic north actually moves! Clearly this is important information for a pilot to know, because the compass points to magnetic north not true north. As a result, when flying, pilots have to make adjustments to accommodate for this slight pull in direction. In practical terms, variation can impact any of us. Think of this as all the elements that pull you way from true north. The trick is knowing the difference between true north, and magnetic north.

The second factor that impacts a pilot’s compass is good ol’fashioned error. For example, sometimes when you speed up or slow down, it can give you a wrong reading. If a pilot knows these errors exist due to predictable turns, they can compensate by preparing in advance.

Finally, the last variable he shared with us was deviation. Did you know that most things have their own magnetic pulls? This creates interference with your compass. For example, during his flight test the instructor put his cell phone on the dashboard to test Che’s ability to notice and adjust for the magnetic pull that would throw his compass off a bit. In my friend’s words, someone is going to try and change your true north to put you off course. What do you do when that happens?

I started the week thinking about each of these factors in my own life. How am I doing as I pilot my own life? And how am I helping my daughters develop their own internal compass and learn how to use it? I got a chance to practice doing the latter in four parent-student conferences. In each conference the girls walked us through their progress as learners against their personal goals for the year. Besides being impressed with each of their ambitious goal setting, I was most inspired by their clear sense of direction. Riley, our high school freshmen has her next four years mapped out in a way that allows her to prioritize subjects she’s passionate about, while creating space for her to explore new things. Olivia our middle schooler is going deep in combining her passions for cooking and entrepreneurship. London, our third grader is already prepared to move into fourth grade content. And Sloane, our first grader walked us through where she is on her math and literacy journey. For my wife and I, we got to enjoy asking good questions like, how do you feel about your progress? What are you learning about yourself right now? What are you struggling with? They each have a clear sense of where they are and what that means for them right now. That’s more locational confidence than I ever had a their age.

At the end of the week, I had lunch with a good friend where we discussed our own growth and evolution as husbands, fathers, etc. We’ve known each other so many seasons of life, and it’s great to be able to track and celebrate growth with a person. One of the things we talked most about was our compass adjustments. As we’ve had new experiences and learned new things, our ability to read and calibrate our internal compass has improved. Even our understanding of true north has evolved, which is a sign of maturity. The beautiful thing about a compass is even if you get off track, once you find your true north, you can always get back on track. Here’s to the process of continuing to locate ourselves.

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