Try this exercise from Jim Huling, in an article published by Motto Magazine:
- Identify the different roles you play that define who you are. Personalize the roles to further define. For example, Andy’s mother, business owner, gardener. Add in roles even if you have not spent time on them recently. For example, you may have been a musician in high school.
- Place a check mark beside each role on the list where you’ve invested five or more hours in the last thirty days. Notice the most important role that doesn’t have a check mark.
- Prioritize the list–from most important role to least important role.
- Give yourself a grade for how well you’ve fulfilled each role, from A for excellent to F for failing. Remember, this is based on your standard and no one else’s.
I did this for myself and came up with mostly B’s, a couple of C’s and a couple of A’s. The beauty of this exercise is that it paints a very clear picture of what matters to you and where you are behaving incongruently with what matters. This awareness helped me to re-focus where to spend time.
Huling gives two additional exercises to deepen this work of purposely shaping your life. The Motto article is excerpted from the upcoming book, Choose Your Life! A Powerful, Proven Method for Creating the Life You Want.
What gives Huling’s work additional credibility is his role in the business world, as CEO of Matrix Resources, a national IT staffing and solutions company with revenues last year of almost $200 million.
This looks a lot like what DR R Covey is writing in “The 7 habit of Highly effective people”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People
The idea about giving yourself points for the last 30 days is new. Covey uses these roles to plan the important parts in your life first.
It felt strange at first to plan a date with my wife, (especially for her) but now she is very happy with this way of working, as she knows I won’t forget her.
I have read that same article by Huling and found it an excellent check list to put myself through. Unfortunately, I didn’t score as well as I should! I really like the practical steps of assigning the roles and evaluating how much time I spend in each area… I found the exercise to be eye opening and personally challenging. There were several areas in my life that I identified that need my time and attention.. soon!