In my post about Getting Shit Done, I mention my “North Star” moment, and the process of envisioning the moment of success. While those two paragraphs aren’t wrong, I do feel like this concept warrants far more than that.
Next month, I’ll be teaching a class on goal setting. We will be doing a version of this meditation in the course, in addition to a number of other steps along the process of setting and meeting goals.
What is a North Star?
If you know anything about maritime navigation, or maybe you’ve seen Moana, you know that one of the ways that people have always navigated across great stretches of open ocean is by watching the stars. Polaris, the North Star, is bright in the night sky, and is a good guide. Just like the sun’s East-to-West path helps us know which direction we’re heading during the day, Polaris serves the same purpose at night.
When we’re talking about goals, we’re talking about the one image, idea, or concept that helps us clearly navigate the chaos of everyday life. If we have that one “star” shining bright ahead of us, we know what direction we’re going. It can help us to assess the effectiveness of daily activities – is this one action going to take us in the right direction? It can help us make decisions when there are options that seem to be of equal merit.
Beyond that, however, a good North Star can also help you envision and visualize your goal in a real, tangible way. This is what sports psychologists have been using visualization techniques to help athletes succeed with for years. This is what the Manifestation teachers try to tell us to do. This is what makes a goal real in our minds before we make it real in our lives.
Before you Begin
Before you try the exercise below for identifying your North Star, you will need to know what your goal is. Or at least, you will need to have a sense of what that goal might be.
I like to use goals that will take me a year or more to achieve for this kind of work. These are BIG goals. The kind of goals that you often dream about but get overwhelmed when you start working toward them. They should be meaningful, energizing, and a little bit scary.
(The Big Goal that I’ve written about before is that of getting a book published. I’ll use that as an example here.)
Once you have that goal in mind, then it’s time to complete the North Star exercise.
Finding your Personal North Star
Below is an audio file of a meditation that walks you through this exercise. It’s also written below in case you work better with text format.
You can do this as a meditation or a journaling exercise. It should take roughly 30 minutes or so.
Spend three breaths thinking about that audacious goal in the present tense. Consider its timing.
Consider some of the steps that you need to take to get there. Allow the goal to permeate your senses.
Now, either journal or visualize the moment you will know you have reached that goal.
What does the success of that goal look like? Identify and take a moment to feel the tactile sensations, the scents, sounds, and tastes of the moment of achievement.
Envision the real, lived, moment of having achieved that goal. Who else is there with you? What is your emotional state in that moment? How does your body feel?
Spend at least ten minutes in that moment, cementing it in exact detail in your mind.
If you did not journal this, spend several minutes writing this down. This visualized moment is your North Star.
How to Use Your North Star Goal
I strongly recommend creating a visual reminder of this North Star moment where you’ll see it regularly. I use an image on the lock screen on my phone. A vision board, or other visual cue is also useful.
Then, whenever you are setting your smaller goals and milestones, when you have to make a choice, consider your North Star. Does this action get you closer to it? Even just one step?
Also, do keep in mind that this is an image you will be using for years. I came up with this North Star goal in 2012 or 2013. I am on track to possibly reach it in 2025 or 2026. I’ve been working steadily toward it for over a decade.
I’ll use my North Star as an example. My goal is to be published. There are tons of paths to that. I could self-publish, I could use an indie press, I could query agents. There’s no wrong answer to the North Star idea – for some writers, holding a book in their hands is the North Star. For others, having someone cosplay their characters is that moment they know they succeeded. The way we can choose our various paths forward is by knowing what that North Star moment is for ourselves.
For me, my North Star moment is seeing my book in the wild. At a bookstore on a shelf (where I didn’t place it!), or in the hands of someone at the airport, just out in the world being a book at large. I can smell and taste this moment.
Now, consider the paths to publishing I mentioned above. Self-publishing and indies are perfectly valid, but the road from there to my North Star is super long, and it requires a lot of legwork. Sure, it’s doable. It’s just extra difficult. A traditional publishing contract is far more likely to reach my North Star moment more quickly than an alternative route.
Now, let’s look at my current goals and milestones for this quarter:
- Grow my platform to 10K people – this is the so-called threshold that many traditional publishers look for with an author’s marketing platform. I am trying to get this managed before I start doing agent queries.
- Get Advanced Unicorn Theory into its next stage – This is going to be the first book that is produced with my name on the spine. Yes, it’s an edited collection of chapters, so I didn’t write it completely. But it’s a great way to learn how to market a book, and it’s great working experience that I can use to market myself to agents and publishers later on. It’s a step in the right direction. Would it “count” if I saw A.U.T. in the wild? Absolutely, it would!
- Revising the Burnout book and sending it to the editor – I don’t have a deal yet for this book, but I have a traditional small press publisher interested in it. This may be my second book with my name on the spine. Would it “count” if I saw it in the wild? 100% yes.
- Learn more about self-publishing a novella or the collection of short stories – I’d like to have a few pieces of book-sized fiction available, and self-publishing seems like a skill I’ll eventually need to have. It’s not as likely to reach my North Star directly, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.
- Sending out queries and proposals for my dissertation-turned-book – This goal is probably the closest to the North Star I’ve ever been. I have a book worthy of a Big 5 publisher, and I want to get it in front of people to show them that.
There are other goals that may not look like they are directly related to this North Star. That’s partially because I have a small constellation of four different stars that I’m tracking toward. It’s also because the goals do support the path to the North Star, just indirectly. For example, my classes that I teach on Morbid Anatomy help me pay the bills. Paying the bills is a great way to continue writing and creating! (In case you’re wondering, my categories of goals are financial health and security, physical health and safety, seeing my book in the wild, and being a good ancestor.)