The Ascent Protocol - Stage 3: Route Planning
Are you going the right way?
A six-stage process to prepare you for the journey from where you are to where you're meant to be! New stages drop Fridays through the end of July, followed by the Readiness Protocols that will help you improve performance based on your assessment.
The radio crackled to life at 0147 hours: "Change of mission. You're going into Mosul immediately. Open a route to the airport, begin securing it, and prepare for your Kurdish forces to move at first light.”
This was not the operation we had been planning to execute. But it was the mission we had now.
I stared at the map spread across the hood of my Toyota Land Cruiser in the pre-dawn darkness of northern Iraq. Hours of meticulous planning for a completely different operation—studying terrain, identifying waypoints, calculating timing between different Special Forces Teams and their Kurdish partners—suddenly became obsolete.
Now, just a few special operations soldiers would be opening a critical corridor in darkness, alone, with no backup plan. But here's what years of special operations had taught me: the plan may change, but the intent remains constant. When you know where you're meant to go and why it matters, you can adapt to any change in plans.
This same principle is essential for navigating one of life's most challenging missions: finding your way back to purpose when the map you've been following no longer makes sense.
Sometimes we find ourselves in unfamiliar territory with no clear path forward. The route that once seemed obvious—accumulating achievements, wealth, and recognition—suddenly feels meaningless.
Just as that night in Iraq, we need to devise a new plan for an objective we're only beginning to understand.
The Mission Behind the Mission
Last week, we inventoried your arsenal—the three levels of capabilities you possess. The week before, we assessed your base camp position. Now comes the most crucial element of ascent preparation: identifying your sacred mission (your plan).
What this is not -
This isn't about career goals or five-year plans.
This isn't about what others expect from you or what society says you should pursue.
What this is -
This is about discerning the deeper calling that has been trying to get your attention through every loss, every victory, every moment when you felt most alive, and every experience that broke you open.
In military planning, we distinguish between the stated mission and the commander's intent. The stated mission is specific: "Secure the airfield by 0600." The commander's intent is deeper: "Control this terrain to enable follow-on operations by conventional military forces when they arrive." When circumstances change and the original plan becomes impossible, soldiers who understand the commander's intent can adapt and still accomplish what matters most.
Your sacred mission is your commander's intent for your life.
The Intelligence Gathering Phase: Learning to Listen
During a period of major life transition, I used to spend weeks trying to think my way to clarity. I would analyze options, weigh pros and cons, and seek advice from mentors—all valuable, but insufficient. The breakthrough came when I stopped trying to figure it out and started learning to listen (to myself).
I run or take long walks without podcasts or music. I meditate—not the quick, productivity-focused sessions, but deep, open listening. I spend hours working with my hands on mechanical projects, entering the timeless state that emerges when your mind quiets and your deeper knowing has space to surface.
It was during one of these sessions that I heard it clearly for the first time: You're meant to guide others through the terrain you've already crossed.
I am not a guru or expert, but I am someone who has walked difficult paths and can help others navigate their crossings. My calling isn't about saving anyone—it's about serving as a guide for those ready to do their own climbing.
Your Sacred Mission isn't something you create or decide upon. It's something you discover through deep listening. It's already there, waiting to be recognized.
The Four Waypoints of Sacred Mission Discovery
In route planning, waypoints are intermediate objectives that help you navigate toward your ultimate destination. In discerning your sacred mission, there are four waypoints where truth tends to surface:
Waypoint 1: The Wound That Became Wisdom
Your deepest struggles often point toward your most meaningful service. Not because suffering is required, but because the path through difficulty develops capacities that can serve others facing similar challenges.
For me, navigating the loss of two siblings at an early age and combat loss taught me about processing trauma that became essential when others faced their own harrowing experiences. The journey through various life transitions revealed depths of resilience and wisdom that I'm now called to share with others walking similar paths.
Where has your greatest struggle developed your most unique wisdom?
Take time this week to sit quietly with this question. Don't rush to answer analytically. Breathe deeply, soften your focus, and listen for what emerges from your deeper knowing.
Waypoint 2: The Joy That Transcends Circumstances
Your sacred mission is always connected to activities and experiences that generate what I call "transcendent joy"—the kind of fulfillment that goes beyond pleasure or happiness and touches something timeless within you.
This isn't necessarily your hobby or what you do for relaxation. It's the activity where you lose track of time, where you feel most like yourself, where you sense you're participating in something larger than your individual concerns.
I experience this joy when guiding others through rugged terrain—whether it’s helping a friend who was blinded in Iraq navigate races, assisting another veteran in processing combat trauma, supporting someone through grief, or working with leaders who are questioning their path. Time disappears. Self-consciousness fades. I feel aligned with my purpose.
What activities or experiences generate transcendent joy for you?
Again, don't think your way to this answer. Set aside time to remember moments when you felt most alive, most connected, and most like yourself, when you were expressing your most authentic self. Trust what emerges from this deeper reflection.
Waypoint 3: The Persistent Vision
Your sacred mission often announces itself through visions or images that persist over time—pictures of the impact you might have, the contributions you could make, or the ways you might serve that keep returning to your awareness, despite practical concerns.
These visions may seem impossible, impractical, or beyond your current capabilities. They might conflict with your current career or lifestyle. Please pay attention to them anyway. Sacred missions often require growth into capacities you don't yet possess.
What vision of impact or service keeps returning to your awareness?
Sit with this question and let your imagination show you possibilities without immediately evaluating their practicality. Trust the images that arise from deep listening rather than surface thinking.
Waypoint 4: The Legacy Question
If you could only be remembered for one contribution to the world, what would it be? Not your achievements or accomplishments, but the difference you made in the lives of others or the world around you.
This question cuts through surface desires and social expectations to reveal what matters most deeply to you—your answer points toward your sacred mission.
My answer became clear during meditation: I want to be remembered as someone who helped others recognize their strength and find their way through difficult terrain, not as someone who provided easy answers, but as someone who helped people discover their own deeper knowing and capabilities.
How do you want to be remembered for the difference you made?
Let this question settle into your awareness without forcing an immediate response. The answer may emerge gradually, in quiet moments, when you're not actively thinking about it.
The Preliminary Route: Your General Direction
Your sacred mission isn't a detailed action plan—that level of specificity comes later in the process. Right now, you're identifying your general direction and major waypoints. Think of this as drawing the main route on a map without worrying about every twist and turn.
Based on your four waypoints, can you identify:
Your General Direction: What is the broad area of impact or service you're being called toward?
Your Primary Terrain: What kind of challenges or situations are you meant to navigate?
Your Unique Contribution: What specific combination of wisdom, transcendent joy, persistent vision, and legacy calling distinguishes your mission from anyone else's?
My preliminary route: Guide individuals through major life transitions by helping them recognize their own strength and inner knowing. Primary terrain: Loss, career changes, spiritual awakening, leadership challenges. Unique contribution: Strategic analysis combined with spiritual discernment and hard-won wisdom about grief, failure, and finding meaning in adversity.
Your route will be different, but equally valid and equally necessary.
Trust the Process, Trust Your Knowing
The most important thing I can tell you about discovering your sacred mission is this: trust your inner knowing over external validation. Your calling may not make immediate sense to others. It may not fit conventional career paths or social expectations. It may require you to develop new capabilities or step into unfamiliar territory.
That's exactly as it should be. Sacred missions are always edge assignments—they call you to grow beyond your current limitations and serve in ways that stretch your capacity.
The world doesn't need another person following someone else's path. The world needs you to discover and follow your own sacred mission, using your unique arsenal of capabilities to serve in ways that only you can.
Next Week: Capacity Building
In Stage 4, "Base Camp to Summit: Building Your Capacity," we'll explore how to develop the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual strength for your specific ascent. We'll cover the gradual capacity building that prepares you for higher levels of responsibility.
But first, spend this week in deep listening. Trust your intuition.
Stop. Breathe. Meditate. Listen to your inner knowing.
Your sacred mission is waiting to be discovered.
The mountain is still calling. Your renaissance is still unfolding.
And now you're beginning to sense where you're meant to climb.
Lead with Love,
Doom
This Week's Sacred Practice: Spend at least 20 minutes daily in quiet reflection on the four waypoints. No devices, no distractions. Just you, your breath, and your willingness to listen deeply. You can keep a journal nearby to capture insights, but don't force yourself to write anything. Trust that your deeper knowing will emerge when you create space for it.
Share Your Discovery: What emerged from your four-waypoint reflection? Even if it's unclear or feels incomplete, sharing can help clarify your emerging sacred mission.