[caption id=“attachment_1782” align=“aligncenter” width=“1024”] Photograph 005 by Lauren Mancke found on minimography.com[/caption] If you’re interested in personal development (making a conscious effort to get better at life), you’ll eventually encounter an excellent piece of advice:

“If you want to be happy, focus on what you can control.”

Many great thinkers have paraphrased this idea:

You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

[caption id=“attachment_1755” align=“aligncenter” width=“1024”] Even koalas have problems. I think. (Photograph 045 by Lauren Mancke found on minimography.com)[/caption] When we’re facing a problem without an easy solution, it’s easy to feel like we have no idea what to do, no idea where to start.

This is rarely the case.

Most of the time, we actually know what we need to do. We just don’t realize it.

My baby daughter is making me fat

Our daughter Kate is three months old today (hooray!), and since she was born I’ve gained almost ten pounds. Each morning when I step on the scale, I think, “I need to do something about this. What to do, though? I’ll have to set aside 30 minutes to think through it, do some soul-searching, and make a plan.”

[caption id=“attachment_1757” align=“aligncenter” width=“1024”] Near the summit of Wheeler Peak, NM[/caption] There is a huge chasm separating planning and doing, but most people don’t realize it’s there.

Doing feels like a natural outgrowth of planning. “First I’ll make a plan, then I’ll execute it. Simple.”

But anyone who’s worked on a big project knows that simple doesn’t mean easy. If asked, most of us could produce a long list of projects planned, begun, and abandoned.

[caption id=“attachment_1748” align=“aligncenter” width=“1024”] Sunset in the British Virgin Islands[/caption]

“It’s not the blowing of the wind that determines our destination, it’s the set of the sail.”

— Jim Rohn

Did you know that a sailboat can sail against the wind?

Using a technique called tacking, a skilled sailor can zigzag back and forth at a 45° angle, making slow progress against a headwind (that’s where the expression “take a different tack” comes from). Tacking requires skill, and it takes a while. But it can be done.

[caption id=“attachment_1719” align=“aligncenter” width=“1024”] photo by Andrew Martin[/caption] A frequently unbalanced life is a good life.

Seriously.

One of the big problems with personal development is the implied idea that we can attain perfect daily balance if we just self-actualize hard enough.

No one says it explicitly, but read a few books on time management or personal development and you’ll start to believe that it’s possible to do all this every single day: