Checking Your Coordinates

Life can feel overwhelming when we don’t stop to check where we’re really standing. In this episode, we talk about the “grid” and the “scale” of our personal maps—being honest about where we are and setting goals that measure progress, not perfection. Cydni and Sher discuss stories about a lost snake and a found grounding mat as they both explore how to move forward 1% at a time with purpose, peace, and faith. This episode is "Checking Your Coordinates" and we are so glad you are here!

This Week's Challenge
This week, create your own life map by writing down where you are right now (your grid) and one small, realistic step (your scale) you can take to move forward in faith.

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Show Notes

Drip-Drip Drop, Words and  Music by  Matt Hoiland
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Transcript

Episode 125 - Checking Your Coordinates

Cydni: [00:00:00] We're gonna talk about the grid today. That means knowing where you are, right? Correct. I like that because we have a lost snake in our house and I think it's funny, we have a lost snake in our house. 

Sher: That's horrifying. That is like my worst nightmare. 

Cydni: I am not qualified to talk about where things are. We don't know where a snake is in our house. This is why you should never have pet snakes ever. I didn't want one. You go to one reptile show and suddenly you leave with a snake. That was never the intention. I just wanted to go and let the kids see them. How did we leave with one and now where is it? 

Sher: Please make sure the snake stays on your side of the neighborhood. 

Cydni: I don't wanna anywhere. It could be in their neighborhood. Oh. 

Sher: I don't know. I, it's slithering around over to Anna's house right now. 

Cydni: Sorry 

Sher: Anna. You're welcome. 

Cydni: Anna. There have been some mice in the neighborhood. I've seen them in the streets, We're gonna clean it up now. My kids are like, I'm kind of scared to go to bed tonight. And I was like, I assure you dad and I will be fine 'cause our room's upstairs. Good luck.[00:01:00] 

And with that, welcome to the Cydni and Sher podcast. 

Sher: All right, Cydni. So this month we have been talking about getting back to the basics of happiness. School's starting, 

Cydni: yeah. We're figuring out the flow of life again. 

Sher: It's rough. It's kicking my butt and I only work part-time. 

Cydni: One of my children, his school's not even open on time. So we're homeschooling. They told us two weeks. I'm expecting two years just to mentally prepare. that's a safe bet right there. But I don't want to do any of the work i'm like, okay, Titus is home and maybe we could go to the bowling alley and like, how much does it really matter? How much does school really matter? He could just listen to our podcast and he would learn everything he needs to learn and that kid is so good at listening to me.

Sher: Everything you just said right there just kind of hurt my teacher heart. Who cares? School doesn't matter. Okay. School matters, everybody knows all we're there for is to babysit your kids. That's it. 

Cydni: We did, we did have that conversation. But it matters in the way that when you have a good teacher. [00:02:00] You are affected by that the rest of your life. And I was so blessed to have several very good teachers and they remain in my heart forever. Do I remember any lesson they actually gave me? No, but I remember how they made me feel and that you carry forever, 

Sher: which is kind of a lot of pressure. 'cause then you remember all the bad teachers too, and you carry that forever. So how many adults are walking around that I scarred? Yeah. Forever from me. Sorry. I didn't mean to. 

Okay, so as I was saying, this month we're getting back to the basics so we've talked about finding our purpose and our meaning and building connections and relationships. And then last week we talked about being grateful in our journey here on Earth and we decided to use one of the assignments that I used to give my students when I was teaching geography and US history, and that was teaching my students the five parts of a map. And the five parts of a map are a title, a key, a compass, a grid, and a scale. Do you remember all this Cydni? 

Cydni: A hundred percent. Because I went back to the basics of being a student who is [00:03:00] well studied. And pays attention and takes notes. She didn't listen to a word I said, I actually am playing that block game on my phone right now. I almost have the highest score. Once I played that game during. Church and then a kid, he sent me his score and it was higher than mine during church. That's fabulous. That's awesome. So then I went to Google and found the highest score and I sent that to him. Good for you. And he said, how dare you lie during church? And I said, get off your phone.

Sher: that's a quality example right there. Cydni of 

Cydni: what? I don't even know. What are we talking about? I don't even know my purpose or meaning this week. I forgot all of it. I'm just really grateful for soda. 

Sher: Well anyway, once they understood the five parts of a map and how to use 'em, I would have them create their own map, but about their own life. So they would draw out their journey So last week we talked about the first three parts of a map, the title is what they wanted to be remembered for, or their theme of their life. The key are the symbols of the [00:04:00] people or the values and experiences that have shaped them. A compass is who their north is and today we're gonna focus on the last two parts of a map, which are the grid and the scale. So a grid is where are we currently on our journey? What is our exact location or coordinates and a scale is your goals and your growth that you're seeing on your journey. So we're gonna start with talking about. The grid today. the grid tells us our current location, in order for us to move forward in life. It's necessary to know where you're currently standing or where you're currently located. Now, I want you to just think about these questions for a second, Cydni, and be honest, you don't have to answer out loud. I don't want you to feel pressure. 

Cydni: I don't want you to talk at all during our podcast together. Just say everything you would like to say in your head today, Cydni, so it won't be so hard to edit. 

Sher: Yeah, that would make it easier. All right, so again, we're thinking about where we currently are in our life. [00:05:00] So are you overwhelmed? Yes. do you feel like you're just coasting? Yes. Are you running on a hundred percent Are you grasping for control? 

Cydni: I'm grasping. 

Sher: what habits or emotions are dominating your days. 

Cydni: Yes. 

Sher: Are you spiritually grounded or are you spiritually drifting?

Cydni: No, I'm not grounded. But I did recently buy one of those earth grounding mats that you put on your bed. You know what I'm talking about? Have you seen those? Mm-hmm. It's the mat that you put underneath your sheets and it's supposed to ground you. What the heck? I don't know, but 

Sher: whatever. What, what?

Cydni: Just let it be. 

Sher: I don't even even understand.

Cydni: Earth Grounded Mats that you put on your bed you plug it into the wall and it grounds you. Ben showed me and I bought it. For his birthday.

Sher: Oh that's where the snake is 

Cydni: Probably. It's very grounded snake right now. It's one with the earth. Mm-hmm. I don't know about spiritually grounded, but physically and I am grounded for the last 48 hours 

Sher: Well, who knew? I don't even know [00:06:00] why I asked you any of those questions. I apologize to all the listeners and to myself for doing that. 

Cydni: You're lucky I wasn't really listening right there. I think I might be offended I was thinking about if I plugged in our grounding mat or not. but in all honesty, I think it was good that you asked me those questions for my own wellbeing, so thank you. I'm actually texting a therapist now to schedule. Other than that, when I was looking at this I had this thought come to me.

Remember, president Nelson talks about going before the Lord with confidence, so that came to my mind. But I wasn't sure why it was coming to my mind. And so I've sat and pondered on this while I sat on my bed. Grounded, I pondered, which helps the frequency. So you connect to God better? I don't think that's true. And I've really thought a lot about going before God with confidence, and we say it means to go before God confidently as you are, but

maybe to make it more relatable to myself, to [00:07:00] understand it better. I thought I myself would never want to go to a doctor. I hate going to the doctors. I really do. if I go to a doctor, I honestly would prefer that I go in and he would tell me, I'm Iner health and I'm fine. I do not want to go to a doctor sick.

I don't want to have like a weird rash on my thigh and be like, can you look at my thigh? There's a rash. I don't want to be seen. Broken or sick or not? Well, I want them to say, wow, you're super fit and you do everything you're supposed to do and you're perfect, but you would never go to the doctor if you were in perfect health.

And I've really thought about this, that if we could just be honest with where we're at. And be honest that maybe you have a weird rash and you need to go to a doctor. The doctor would look at that rash and he would say, here's a cream. It's going to make you better. And I've thought a lot about the grid that if you swallow the pride and you admit you are where you are.

 That is when you can get the things you need to become better. But [00:08:00] it is so hard, and it is so hard for me to want to go before God confidently. I want to go before God when I'm perfect so that he could say, well done thou good and faithful servant. But right now he'd be like, Hey don't you come in, close the door behind you.

Let's sit and talk. I don't wanna hear that. I wanna hear that. I'm perfect. But I'm not, I'm not even close to being perfect and so as I've reflected on the idea of being honest with yourself, to me it's just, if you're honest with yourself about your health, you could go to the right place and get the right help and you will get better.

And if you're honest with yourself and you go before God as you are. Then he's going to 100% accept you as you are and then be able to work with you to become better. And I don't know if that makes sense. I was just thinking about it. I was trying to find a snake. But I do love the idea of being honest about where you are. It's the only way to move forward. 

Sher: I agree with everything you just said and the hard part for me to get my. Head around is like you just said, God wants us to come to Him just the way we [00:09:00] are and He knows that we're broken and imperfect. He just wants us to show up and to try. Sometimes that's really hard to understand because we expect more from ourselves or we don't think we're good enough and we put up our own roadblocks. But God doesn't care about any of that.

Cydni: Exactly. And I also thought that when I first started logging my food, I was so afraid to log my food because I knew it wasn't going to be a good situation.

 But when I allowed myself to just honestly log my food, see how many calories I'm at, and where all my macros were at once I did that, honestly. I made simple adjustments because I knew what I was working with and then I was able to move forward. So we just sometimes have to face where we are and it's not as bad as we think it is, or it is. And then, you know, that's good because then you have a lot of room to improve. 

Sher: That's a good way to look at it. It's just sometimes really hard. 'cause we're too busy beating ourselves up for not being perfect, but. It's good to recognize where you are and then what you need.

Another word that I thought of [00:10:00] is the word mindfulness. And I am gonna just be really honest with you, Cydni. We had to do mindfulness stuff at school before I retired with our students and with ourselves. And every time we did it, I just thought it was a bunch of nonsense and I. Secretly mocked it in my head all the time

Cydni: but you don't feel that way about the grounding mat though, right? Like that's different. 

Sher: No, I put it in the exact same category as the grounding mat. but then I had something change in my life, and that is when I had a stroke. This is the irony of this is one of my very best friends is a professor of mindfulness.

Did you know that? I did. I remember. And she would tell me all about what she was doing, and she does awesome things and she's doing incredible things, and she's a great public speaker. She's awesome. so I cared because she cared, but I really didn't care about what she was talking about but after I had my stroke, she taught me how to deal with a head that wasn't working and she used mindfulness and it was [00:11:00] really helpful and I found out it's not nonsense. Maybe you're grounding Mat is not nonsense, but she taught me that it does work. I would just focus on one task.

So for example, when I was walking, I only could focus on walking, not talking, not thinking about something else. I was only focusing on walking, and I would choose a spot to get to, and I would just focus on that one spot. I would walk towards it and that was it, because that's all my brain had room for at the time, and that's all I would do.

 Then she also taught me how to breathe so that I could wade through this brain fog that I had. . So it is so good to be mindful of where you are on your journey so you can keep moving toward. Compass, which we learned about last week, which our compass, our north is our Savior. And I feel like now I'm moving like a snail. I'm slower than I ever have been in my entire life.

 But I've learned it's okay. Focus on one task at a time. Breathe and keep [00:12:00] moving. I found a quote that really sums up how I feel right now. You are exactly where you need to be, even if it doesn't feel like it. I felt like in my life that, there were certain things I was pretty darn good at before my stroke. Like I always felt like I was a really good multitasker because of the job I had, but I'm not anymore. I can do one task at a time. That's it. And I'm slower than slow and it's okay something that Shelly just taught me just yesterday, have you heard about the 1% theory?

Cydni: believe that I've listened to this on YouTube before. Oh, good. You can help me out then. I mean, no, Share. I don't know anything about this. Please tell me. Thanks, Cydni. I'm not. don't even know where I am. 

Sher: All right, so in this theory, the idea is improving 1% every single day. It's small, but it's consistent. And this can lead to massive long-term gains because of its compounding effect. These are small, manageable steps and they're easy to maintain. They're not big and sudden changes, just small little changes. The idea [00:13:00] behind it is consistency beats intensity. And you're gonna focus on the process, not perfection. And If you do this. 1% improvement each day. You can have over a 37% increase than where you started over a year. it's like we're putting money in a bank and it's growing interest. It's compounding on itself. but We're investing skills, habits, and our mindset. I really like that idea because then it feels like I can improve if I'm just gonna improve 1% every single day. 

Cydni: I love that idea. And it brings to mind one of my friends who was really, really into fitness and then had some health issues that took it away from her. And so where she'd go to the gym every day, she couldn't go for about three years and she just barely started to do pushups and once upon a time, could do so many and she started with three and then did five.

And just recently she told me that she could do 40. And I thought, how beautiful to watch this person accept where [00:14:00] they are they didn't think about where they used to be. 'cause it's not the same anymore, and to just be humble enough to accept that. Where you could work out for an hour and a half, it's an accomplishment to do three pushups, and now over six months time you could do 40. And I just felt so touched by the example to accept where she was, to the excitement of where she is now. Because I think we get caught up in wanting to look a certain way and that takes all of our energy and stress and anxiety because we want to come across this way. We wanna be that way. We're so focused on the fact that we are not there yet instead of just accepting where we are and then build from that 1% at a time underneath our belt to have that increase. 

Sher: All right. So that's our grid, that's our current location is recognizing where we currently are. And the next part is the scale, and the scale is our measurement. So where do we want to go? The scale shows how far [00:15:00] we've come already, but it's also gonna , show us how far we hope to eventually go.

this means we're gonna set realistic spiritual goals, health goals, whatever goals it is that you want to do, we're gonna make sure they're realistic, even if there's just a 1% gain each day. And. This is the important part, the scale helps us measure not against others, but it's against our own self.

It's our own potential. I found this quote that I thought was good for me. It said, don't compare your beginning to someone else's middle or your middle to someone else's end. 

Cydni: Don't compare your end to someone else's end, correct. 

Sher: So we've talked a lot about this journey here on Earth, that God has created it just for each one of us, all of us are here learning, tailor made lessons. because God knows what's best for us and he knows how and why and when we're gonna grow the most, 

with that in mind, president Nelson said this, the term perfect was [00:16:00] translated from the Greek teleios. I apologize. I do not speak Greek, which means complete. The infinitive form of the verb is teleo, which means to reach a distant end to be fully developed, or to finish. Please note that the word does not imply freedom from error. It implies achieving a distant objective. The Lord taught ye are not able to abide the presence of God Now. Wherefore continue in patience until you are perfected. So God just wants us to keep moving and not give up. He doesn't expect perfection. Now, but he does want us to have patience with ourselves and just focus on improvement that 1% every single day. He would really like that. 

Cydni: You know what all of this has reminded me of Thomas s Monson. He has the four guideposts. We've talked about these before. Oh yeah. And it just popped up in my mind, and I'm going to remind both of us what they are. [00:17:00] He says to glance backward, reflect on past experiences and learn from them. But again, we talked about to glance backwards, don't stay there. Just glance. Number two, look heaven word, cultivate faith, study scriptures, pray and strive for eternal life. Number three, reach outward. Strive to serve others, build, inspire, and lead those around you. And the fourth press onward, set worthy goals. Have the courage to make a second effort if needed, and have the determination to keep trying.

Also I was listening to a speech by Elder Bednar and he talked about be still and know that I Am God. And then he said, I'm not sure if by be still. He means to not move. In fact, I would argue that when God says be still, he means to have peace within yourself as you move forward he said that he would encourage us to understand that by being still. That [00:18:00] means that no matter what whirlwind is happening around us, that we stay anchored, that we understand who's watching over us and who is with us, and that if we do that, then we can be still even in storms.

Sher: From both of the things that you just mentioned from Elder Bednar and President Monson, one of the things that it made me think about is the pressure we put on ourselves is from us. It's not from our Heavenly Father and our Savior. Like President Monson said, glance back. He didn't say, go sit in, the mistake you made and put it all over you and waddle around in it for the rest of your life. He said, glance back, learn from it, move forward. Right? That's what God wants us to do Elder Bednar saying that Heavenly Father wants us to fill that peace but he wants us to work and to move forward, but have His peace, have His rest with Him, find that joy in the journey as we're trying to make our way through this life. And so the pressure. Is not from them. They just want us home and they're trying to help us get back home.

[00:19:00] I think of that talk from the last general conference instead of when we hear repent, ye think of the words, I love you Heavenly Father's saying I love you. Repent so you can come back to me. And I think that's a mind set shift. I need to make not that he's mad at me, it's he's trying to get me back home and this is the way to do it and sometimes you have to have a little bit of tough love, and sometimes you have to go to our Heavenly Father in tears. Sometimes you have to go with joy, whatever the circumstance. He just wants us back home, and so he's gonna help us and shape us and mold us to help us continue our journey so we can be with him again.

I

Cydni: mean, there's a little bit of fire in brimstone in there. There's a little bit of like, Hey, don't murder your neighbor, or you'll be thrust down to the burning depths of hell and it's not fun there. There's a little bit of thought. 

Sher: I agree with that. I mean, if you 

Cydni: You agree with not murdering your neighbor 

Sher: well, I think if you murder your neighbor, it's okay if God puts his foot down and you get thrust down to [00:20:00] hell, I think that's okay. It's acceptable. 

Cydni: I'm gonna edit that myself, just where it says, I think it's okay. And then I'm gonna put it all over social media. Great. And then we're gonna get some new listeners. 

Sher: Good grief. Okay, something else that I just wanted to see. I did a little search on, some ideas of how we can move forward, but I wanted to find them in the scriptures only, and this is the advice that our Heavenly Father and our Savior has given us, found in our scriptures of how we can continue to move forward in our life. we are taught to continue in patience until you are perfected. Also I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept on precept.

so far we've learned to be patient with ourselves and that growth comes gradually also. And if men come unto me, I will show unto them their weaknesses. So weakness is part of the plan and it's there to help us grow. more advice is forgetting those things which are behind reaching forth. I press towards the mark. [00:21:00] So focus forward, don't just keep looking backwards. By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. Small steps matter that 1%. It truly matters. It's not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength, avoid burnout. Go at your own pace. Don't compare yourself to other people.

How about this one? Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So this is personal growth and this one, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause of their own free will. So set goals that are aligned with God and with your agency and with your values. And how about this one? Trust in the Lord and he shall direct thy paths . Let God help you set your course this list was huge. Like I got so many of them, Cydni, just from doing a quick search, God has given us so much advice and so much help found in the scriptures of how we can get back home to him. 

Cydni: Okay. I love your assignment because it all comes together for [00:22:00] me. We have the title, which is who we want to Be, how we Want to Be Remembered, and then the key, the symbols of the people and the values that shape us. The compass, who and what is your north, the grid, where we currently are, and then the scale where you want to go. You can see how this ties together. We absolutely have to understand who we want to be to know the direction. Otherwise, we're just a boat on the ocean being pushed to and fro.

And if we understand that where our focus is, that's what grows. And so we understand by this map that you are having us create that it matters so deeply what we're focusing on, who we're surrounded with, and understanding where we are and where we want to go.

It all comes together in such a great assignment. Teacher share. That's beautiful. thank you students. Syd. I hope I get an A plus. I've never got one before without lying and cheating. Uh, Kidding. I don't think you were kidding. I especially loved the one [00:23:00] sentence you said from the Philippians scripture.

I press toward the mark. I love the idea of pressing toward it because that implies there's actual real work being done and. It is so important to remind ourselves over and over and over of who we are and where we want to go and what matters to us. Otherwise it's just, I just picture a boat on the ocean and how easy it is to get lost. So we challenge you this week to create your own map, , that you can remind yourself every day, every morning you wake up of where you want to go and why that matters to you 

Sher: this brings us to our final thoughts as we check our coordinates this week. Knowing where you are, your grid and where you're headed, your scale helps you move forward with purpose and peace. Be honest about what you need. Be Gentle with how far you've come and be faithful about where you're going. You are not too slow. You are exactly where you need to be, even if it doesn't feel like it. The [00:24:00] Lord doesn't ask for perfection. He asks for progress. So take a breath, set a spiritually centered goal and keep moving towards Christ. This is our prayer 

Cydni: from Cydni and Sher, I was actually picturing myself drowning while you were saying all this, like, you know. Classing, Grasping, grasping, If you drowned, it's okay. You could go to heaven with Jesus. Or, Satan. My daughter has me on a new app that helps you set goals, and it has pre-list ones because it's meant for. Little kids, but I'm doing it with her. 'cause you can build an animal and hatchet and stuff.

Okay. Anyways, we're doing it together. The first one said the goal is to get outta bed. I was like, I'm gonna change that. And she's like, you don't [00:25:00] wanna get outta bed. And I was like, you have no idea how much I don't wanna get outta bed. So I did change it. But anyway, that's just being honest about my grid to stay in bed 

Sher: on your, your grounding mat? I just wanna stay. 

Cydni: I have a grounding mat That's serious work. 

Sher: we talked about, let me just find where we are. I don't know where we are. 

Cydni: I haven't actually thought this out, but I have something. 

Sher: Can I move on?

Cydni: You could grid on. Okay. Grid on Brady. On, I dunno. What have you got? Nothing. I got nothing. I'm 

Sher: ruining the podcast. No, you're Rudy's ruining my groove though. It could be a snake. Could be a snake. 

Cydni: Eat it. 

Sher: You are not behind.

 The future is as bright, and that's stupid. I'll just stop there. Have a good week. Bye.