Step 1: How to Choose an Area of Your Life to Develop This Year
Leading with Steady Action
Imagine it’s spring. Things are coming back to life all around us. The sounds of birds chirping and the sights of plants budding seem there to remind us who we are and who we hope to become this year.
As you peek out from your cozy winter hibernation shell and look around, what is life asking of you?
This month, we get to take the first real step toward Leading with Steady Action. You’ll work on staying grounded while making purposeful changes in your life.
Read below for a small project for this month to advance your life in a direction that you choose and set you up for next month.
Step 1 will lead you through a simple activity to choose an area of your life to develop this year. That’s it!
Step 1: Choose an area of your life to develop this year
Chances are you have a lot going on in your life, and it can be daunting to choose an area of your life to develop. So, let’s try cutting out the noise by framing it with two questions:
What do you want to be different about your life/world one year from now (that you have control over)?
What do you want to be different about who you are one year from now?
Notice that these questions will produce different answers. One note: if you have a job, you may be tempted to filter these questions through your experiences at work. However, consider asking these questions through the broad lens of your life as a whole. That helps access the fullness of your life and where you wish to go. See below a simple tool for completing this exercise.
Tool: The 10 Minute Writing Exercise
[Instructions]: Set aside 10 minutes for this activity at a time when you expect to feel relaxed and open, like a weekend morning. Find a pen you like to write with, some paper, and a timer.
If you prefer to type this on your computer, you are welcome to use this simple template (when the file is open, click on File, then “Make a copy” and rename it).
Template: Step 1 : Choose an area of your life to develop
When you're ready to begin, write down your question(s) (see above). Then, set your timer and simply free-write for ten minutes.
When the time is up, slowly read what you wrote.
Perhaps give it a title.
Then, give it a home so you can find it again.
We’ll come back to this next month, but you might enjoy looking at it again before then.
Example: What do I want to be different about my life/world one year from now?
I’d like to be creating more and sharing what I create, using color, texture, and the 5 senses. Using my hands. Creating music and art for my family, baking bread, developing recipes, writing poems. This means more time in my kitchen, piano room, art room and going to the theater, museums, and other events for inspiration.
A leadership tip
Many of my clients are experiencing a lot of chaos right now. When you feel life is too chaotic or overwhelming, first, congratulate yourself for being aware of how you are feeling. Then consider some choices you have that may help slow things down: (1) talk to someone you trust about how you feel, (2) go for a walk, (3) write down what’s on your mind and how you’ve gotten through feeling overwhelmed in the past, and (4) do a handstand. Ha! I would do handstands when I was a kid and no, I don’t do them as often these days, but they still work! Whichever you choose, all of these are ideas about how to interrupt a cycle or pattern by changing your external or internal environment.
