How Smooth is Your Ride?

a ferris wheel as a metaphor for the wheel of life exercise

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):

  1. Career
  2. Family and friends
  3. Significant other
  4. Fun and recreation
  5. Health
  6. Money
  7. Personal growth
  8. 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:

  1. What’s going well in your life?
  2. What would you like to improve?
  3. 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!

 

What’s Your Intention for the Fall Season?

fall leaves on trees as a metaphor for setting intentions for the autumn seassson

A lot can happen in 3 months.

You can end the year strong.

BTW, calendars are an artificial construct.

But the psychology of a season and a 90-day time frame is powerful.

Here are a few questions that can help you define your autumn intentions:

πŸ‘‰ How do you choose to lead?

πŸ‘‰ What do you want to change?

πŸ‘‰ What are you saying “yes” to?

πŸ‘‰ What are you saying “no” to?

 

What Do Freedom and Equality Mean to You?

“Who ever walked behind anyone to freedom? If we can’t go hand in hand, I don’t want to go.” πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ So said Hazel Scott. A jazz pianist and singer, Scott was the first Black woman to host her own TV show. Throughout her life from 1920 to 1981, she was a force for racial equality.

As the United States celebrates Independence Day, what do freedom and equality mean to you?

And what does it mean to seek freedom, walking hand in hand?

To me it means …

πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ We are all interdependent. The strength and sustainability of our grand but sometimes fraying experiment in representative democracy rests with linking arms and creating freedom and equality together.

πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ The only thing we control is our own thoughts and actions. We can’t control court decisions (except via future elections) or the news cycle. Yet we ARE free to take individual and collective actions for an equitable world.

πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ A powerful lesson about the founding Americans is one of taking a huge risk, when the outcome is uncertain. The signers of the Declaration of Independence risked death in doing so. Despite that, they proceeded.

And while the founding Americans weren’t perfect, and there were paradoxes in the Declaration, there is a basic framework and foundation that we can strive to expand and grow.

As the U.S. marks its 247th birthday, my hope for those who are celebrating is a day of fun, family, friends, food, fireworks … and a little reflection. Let’s remember this amazing gift we have been given. How can we be good stewards for greater freedom and equality?

 

How Will You Spend Your Golden Week?

A golden sunrise over the mountains

 

Ah, the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. It feels like the world (almost) stops, for one golden week. Texts, emails, and calls drop off in frequency. Calendars have open space. Demands lighten up.

Indeed, it would be tempting to float through these blissful days without a care in the world.

But wait. What if there’s a better way?

What if there’s a path that combines rest, reflection, and renewal? How could you create a deeply satisfying week? One that would end your year on a high note and help you start strong in the new year?

Our values – what’s important to us – can light the way. What’s most important to you? Let that guide your plan for this week. So that when you wake up on New Year’s Day, you feel deep satisfaction in how you chose to use this time.

Anything you’re eager to be and do in the new year, you can start today. Take a small step. And then another. And so on.

Therefore, here’s what’s on my plan for this golden week:

* family and friends: savoring time with loved ones

* writing: creating content for LinkedIn and a new book idea

* business: reflecting on this year and planning for the next

It’s worth noting that there are a few other items on my plan. However, in the interest of prioritizing and not creating a laundry list that will be more exhausting than refreshing, I limited the list to three.

What’s on your plan for this week?

How will you spend this quieter, golden time that comes once a year?

 

What is Possible in a Year?

Reflection ramps up toward the end of a year. Here we are, almost at the end of a second year of living with the Covid-19 virus. How are you navigating through it all?

Thanksgiving this year felt like a welcome pause, to connect with family and friends and be mindful of the blessings in our lives.

Life threw us another curve that day, with news of a new Covid variant. Called Omicron, the new variant is still elusive enough we don’t know exactly how to proceed. As if we ever did.

Reflecting on Thanksgiving 2020 gave me much-needed perspective. The LA County Health Department was just shutting down outdoor dining for restaurants, as Covid spiked in Los Angeles. It felt like a near-death knell for our family’s fledgling restaurant that opened in the summer of 2020.

A year later, though, much has changed. Vaccines became available soon after last Thanksgiving. Business restrictions eased, and the restaurant is generating momentum. Life returned mostly to normal, albeit wearing masks in public places and managing through supply chain disruptions.

Remembering how quickly a year passes and how much changes resulted in two observations. First, a lot can change in a year. Second, viewed in that context, the present truly is a present. And third, what is possible during the next year?

As the poet Mary Oliver penned: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and previous life?”

Our lives take shape in the minutes, hours, days and years.

What is possible for YOU in the year ahead?