How will you find a balance?
There must be a hundred things I want to accomplish and at my vulnerable points of the day I start to cave in and think of them all at once. As I am beginning to waffle mid job- I remember my mind map. A feeling of calm comes over me and I know I can get it all done
I put this life juggler together over a period of time from many different sources. I want to always have an awareness of my ultimate life goals in front of me, so I don't get off track. However, I don't like to be scheduled because I feel like I am locked in.
I'd like to share with you what I came up with. I actually find it to be fun and colorful and totally responsive to my needs. You can adapt it to any organizational system.
It's actually simple and fast!
- Meditate. Pretend this is the first day of the rest of your life! Guess what? It is.This is the inward thinking part. Put your name in the middle of a page with a circle around it. I used a pencil and crayons in my journal. Make 5 -7 lines radiating form the center where your name is. Think of 5-7 areas of your life to which you want to pay attention.
- My 7 areas are: art, spiritual, physical, intellectual, relationships, enviro nment, riches. What are yours?
- I chose words that would spell another word, an acrostic, so that I would easily remember them all. Mine spells "aspirer". It's not exactly a word, but I like the idea of aspiring.
- I also changed some words to make them more palatable. I like the idea of taking care of the environment, but am not too excited about cleaning and laundry all the time. But when I couch it in the true fact that cleaning improves the environment of home, it gets done easily.
- Now choose a color for each area.
Armed with this little drawing and your custom created categories, make up your calendar, using the colors to identify which category envelopes the individual job. For instance, cleaning is environment and it is green. You can continue to use the crayons or colored pencils in your handwritten organizer or use the colors on your computer calendar.
When you notice you are chronically missing a color on your spectrum, pay attention. You need to fit some in soon!
Come to think of it, I believe I have some ironing to do. It will help save the environment and riches by avoiding the dry cleaners! Any action that covers two areas at once is a great motivator! Here are some posts to give you some ideas about reaching goals: A Boundless World and Zen Habits. Each approach is very different, but then so are we all.
Keep me posted as to your own personal approach to deciding on and achieving your goals. What helped the most to inspire you?