by Caroline Leach | Dec 28, 2023 | Change, Work/Life
How was your 2023? What are your hopes for 2024?
Here’s a fun and easy exercise to consider both. It’s called “The Wheel of Life,” from the the Co-Active Training Institute.
Pick a number between 1 and 10 for your satisfaction in these areas of your life (1 is the lowest and closest to the center of the wheel; 10 is the highest and closest to the outer edge of the wheel):
- Career
- Family and friends
- Significant other
- Fun and recreation
- Health
- Money
- Personal growth
- Physical environment
Feel free to modify the categories if you like.
Each category is like a wedge or a slice of pie in the wheel.
Plot your numbers around the wheel and then connect the dots.
The purpose? To see how smooth or bumpy your ride of life is.
The bigger the variation in numbers among categories, the bumpier the ride.
You can also use this to reflect on:
- What’s going well in your life?
- What would you like to improve?
- What actions will increase your satisfaction?
The wheel of life is one of the first exercises I learned in coach training at CTI.
It was fun to revisit it today with year-end reflection and year-ahead planning.
What are your reflection and planning rituals? Would love to know in a comment!
by Caroline Leach | Jul 30, 2023 | Leadership, Work/Life
As a leader, how do you savor your Sunday?
What are the ways you can be completely in the moment? And why is this important for how you live your life and lead in the coming week?
Savoring is a concept I learned about in the most popular course at Yale University. It’s about happiness, and it’s called “The Science of Well-Being.” Taught by psychologist Dr. Laurie Santos, the free course is available on Coursera.
When you savor something, you are in the moment, fully enjoying the experience.
You are not thinking about last week’s problems, or the coming week’s stuffed calendar, or all the tasks on your to-do list.
Instead, you are fully present. You are stepping outside an experience to fully appreciate it. You are noticing the sights, sounds, and smells of your surroundings. You are completely enjoying what you are doing or how you are simply being.
We live in a world that values doing, doing, doing. All the time.
How about simply BEING for a few minutes or hours? Not DOING anything.
How could simply “being” help you savor today? How could it help you find pleasure in the moment?
And when you return to a “doing” state, here are the savoring tips I learned:
1. Sharing the experience with another person
2. Thinking about how lucky you are to enjoy such an amazing moment
3. Keeping a souvenir or a photo of that activity
4. Making sure you stay in the present moment the entire time
5. Journaling about the experience and your reflections on it
When you feel fulfilled and savor Sunday as time off, a few things happen.
First, you truly enjoy life as it unfolds, which is the best gift of all. Life is a series of moments, and you’re there for all of them.
Second, you start your work week in a calmer and more grounded place, ready to lead people in a more inspirational way.
What experience will YOU savor today?
by Caroline Leach | Jul 21, 2023 | Careers, Leadership, Work/Life
How do you use a time windfall? ⌚
Today my client appointments all rescheduled for future dates. I find myself with a day free of calendar commitments. There’s a lot on my to-do list.
What’s the best use of the time?
The temptation is to focus on what I call “administrivia.” These are tasks that sorta, kinda, haveta (?) get done. Respond to routine emails, reconcile QuickBooks, enter coaching hours into the log, and so on.
It feels good to check them off the list. Like I’m making progress.
Yes, they may need to get done. But they are not the tasks that are going to move me forward in a big way.
What are better uses of time?
👉 Thinking about business strategy
👉 Connecting with people in a meaningful way
👉 Choosing one of the most important tasks to complete
How do you know if a task is important?
Ask: what’s the ONE thing, if you focused on it today, that would make the biggest difference in your career or business?
Not something that’s urgent or that represents other people’s priorities.
What’s YOUR priority?
Singular, as in ONE priority.
(Fun fact: the word “priority” began only in the singular form. Meaning that only one priority could exist at a time. Not the multiple priorities we now attempt to juggle daily and hourly. As if we ever could.)
My priority for today is creating a new program for our most loyal guests at our family restaurant Pacific Standard Prime. This is a team-focused effort, involving collaboration and iteration. The administrivia will wait until that’s done.
What’s YOUR priority today?
Recent Comments