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In Silicon Valley it isn’t unusual to hear someone use the phrase, “But what’s your North Star?” It is a good, centering phrase to use because it feels like a dramatic line in a movie. It’s generally followed by an epic pause where everyone listening is prepared to have their entire reality re-align. Because the North Star is the single source of truth — and by having one, you never have to feel or get lost. Just look up to the sky, and follow the North Star.
But Roger von Oech in this ancient blog post from 2007 points out how the North Star isn’t necessarily the same star over time. It is a cool concept because — think of it for a second — that star up there that has been guiding your life’s mission all along, and you think it has been there for eternity. But it wasn’t always the guide for “true North” — no matter how absolute you want to believe its role should be.
Via NASA, also
At present, the star known as Polaris is the North Star. However, Polaris has not always been the North Star and will not always be the North Star.
The reasoning behind why the North Star changes (apparently in 26,000 years it will be updated to a different star) is that the earth itself is shifting and changing in its relation to the universe. It’s a nice metaphor for how the changes in oneself can result in reorienting one’s relation to the universe. You can still have your North Star, but it may end up that it has changed for you — and it may have happened so slowly that you never really noticed it.
So in that sense, periodically asking for one’s North Star isn’t a bad thing because it doesn’t have to always be the same — so you need to poll what this might be. Someone whose North Star keeps changing may not be as flaky as you might think — they may just be going through a lot of change. Whereas someone whose North Star remains always the same could be someone you don’t want to trust all too much – because they are completely static and frozen in the universe. Their North Star hasn’t changed because they themselves haven’t changed.
What’s my North Star? It’s a bit hazy and fuzzy out there for me right now. I am looking in the part of the sky where I know to look — but I am also open to looking at other parts of the sky, too. Part of the fun of being a little lost is knowing that you can’t be lost forever because the provisions on your little life raft will eventually run out. So you have to choose — your time will run out. And I am a terrible swimmer. So … back to the sky for me.
>> photo via NASA
3 Comments
Thank you for the reminder to remain open: It’s helpful to be grounded in a purpose or a goal, but it is true, that as you learn and develop new perspectives, you have to be open to change.
We tend to discover more interesting things when we allow to lose ourselves beyond our comfort zones :). Call it leap of faith, or a journey of curiosity, wherever we travel there will certainly be different landmarks, other than the North star :D. If we focus only on the North Star, we may lose other interesting things on the ground, even stumble at a rock on the route (based on a hindi phrase). I am sure mother nature is more creative enough to give us more than just a single reference point, and rather give us many more alternatives and possibilities to wander. :)..
PS: I love the Orion’s belt, his faithful Sirius, and his passion – the Pleiades 🙂 .. Thanks for the lovely post.
This inspires me to allow for time to star gaze! To perhaps connect the dots up there which might really be the best guide to my north star, which is typically within, right here. With our lifestyle today, ain’t no time to dream day dream let alone look up in the sky. And that to me is perhaps one of the reason our north star stays dim somewhere 🙂 Thanks for the sharing John.