Even when you know where you’re going, the path to your destination can be long and the route to getting there isn’t always clear.

While it might not be possible to regularly live your absolute perfect day this week, month, or year, you can almost certainly take some small action to get yourself closer.

One of the best ways to do this is by defining the tasks, experiences, people, and pursuits to steer away from, and those to steer towards.

Steer Away

The things you steer away from should be those that take you further from your perfect day.

People and tasks that drain your energy, waste your time, or that you simply don’t enjoy. For me, meetings top the list, followed by other people’s deadlines, excessive admin work, and interruptions.

It might not be possible to eliminate the things on this list immediately–maybe never–but by first being aware of what they are, you can then choose to steer as far away as you current situation will allow.

Steer Towards

As you might guess, the people, tasks and circumstances you choose to steer towards are the things you want more of in your life.

They’re the component parts of your perfect day, week or month.

Just as with the things you steer away from, it’s entirely likely that you’ll never 100% arrive at the things you steer towards, but the act of steering towards them helps move you closer to the life you truly want to live and the work you want to be doing.

For me, this list is defined by space.

Time and space to spend observing, thinking, experimenting and creating.

While a big part of my goal is to build up my personal brand as an independent creator, steering into space also plays a big role in my agency.

Within Counterweight, while I have responsibilities to my team and my clients that put some constraints on my time and space, I want to steer myself as far as possible into the tasks and projects that are big-picture, strategic and creative.

In practice, this means hiring and training effectively for the tasks I don’t want to be doing, setting and reinforcing client expectations, being intentional with my schedule, and being mindful of what I say yes to.

Navigating Your Influences

Aside from tasks and commitments, the concept of steering away or towards is incredibly valuable in choosing the influences you allow to guide how you do things.

This might mean steering away from learning from anyone who does a particular type of marketing, or uses specific language in their copy writing.

For me, this often means steering away from anything that looks like a Facebook Ad → Cl*ckfunnels Landing Page → One Time Offer sales funnel.

Instead, lean into your guiding stars, the people and brands who are building businesses, living life, and creating impact in a way that you admire.

For me, this means long-term thinking, slow marketing, building trust through empathy, and striving to create impact beyond the actual product on offer.

Who you choose to steer away from or toward will certainly differ from mine, but much like with your day to day tasks and responsibilities, defining who you want to be more or less like can help you get there faster.

Stay Vigilant

It might feel like the road you’re on is flat and straight, and that without applying pressure to the steering wheel in either direction you’ll continue forward toward your destination at a neutral trajectory. This is not the case, however.

The world is constantly putting pressure on us that more often pulls us closer to the things we don’t want in our lives than the things we do.

If we want to ensure that we’re continually moving toward the lives we want, we need to keep steering toward them every chance we get.

This is a continual process, but one that gets easier over time as choice becomes habit.

While it may seem at the moment that your perfect day is all but unreachable, you’ll be surprised how a few thoughtful, intentional course corrections, the right pressure applied at the right time, can open doors and speed the process to living the life you really want to live.

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