The map is not the territory
-What to do when what you planned to do doesn't go to plan
As a young Marine going through sniper school, we had to memorize the definition of a map:
“A picture or graphic representation of the earth’s surface or a portion thereof depicting or showing all natural and made terrain features as seen from above and drawn to scale.”
I’m not sure of the benefit of memorizing the definition; however, it still lives in my head, along with Archimedes’ principle, Boyle’s gas law, and the sequence for completing a jumpmaster inspection.
And while we were required to prepare meticulously drawn route overlays depicting the azimuth and distance for each leg of our mission we also understood that the map is not the territory.
Sometimes, when navigating, we encounter obstacles that are not annotated on the map. New roads or developments might cause us to deviate from our planned route.
This is not a reason to fail to plan, nor is it an excuse to quit when things don’t go as we expected.
A well-planned route provides a known point from which to deviate when the situation changes, and the understanding that the map is not the territory allows us to adapt when it does.
Tough Rugged Bastards only has 65 reviews on Amazon. The more reviews, the more likely it will be recommended to readers. If you have read it, I would appreciate an honest review. Thanks!
On my other, saltier substack, Ruck The F*ck Up, I’m getting back into the best shape of my life. If you are interested, come on over.
Thanks for reading. Until next week, Keep Walking Point!