THE GAP IS WHERE IT IS AT: THIS IS YOUR POTENTIAL ZONE
Write down the things you want for your life, in order of importance.
This could be health, well-being, family, romantic relationships, friends, leisure, hobbies, career, spiritual life, adventure, education, personal growth etc.
It’s been shown that we can do only three to five things at a time if we are to do them well.
So your next step is to choose five items from your list and put them in order of priority.
The item you would want if you could be granted only one thing in life should be written down first. Item 2 is what would be important if you could have just one more thing. Continue until your list has a maximum of 5 items.
Here’s an example of what one list might look like at this point:
- Health
- Friends & Family
- Career
- Personal Growth
- Fun & Recreation
To the right of each item jot down the order in which those things appear in your life now.
For example, if I say health is the number one priority in my life, but I haven’t exercised regularly in six months, it might really merit a score of five. And I don’t do anything to improve or maintain my health at all in my real life, then I’ll put a zero in that column.
You may have a few zeros, but don’t worry – you’re not alone.
Every audience or client I have ever shared this with had a predominance of zeros in the lineup.
The finished version of the list might be something like this:
- Health – 5
- Friends & Family – 2
- Career – 1
- Personal Growth – 0
- Fun & Recreation – 0
Our hypothetical coachee or client says his health is important, but he does nothing about it.
He wants to have friends and feel connected to the community, but he does even less in those areas.
If you see a lot of zeroes on your list, my strategy has succeeded.
In having you take the quiz, I wanted to wake you up to the fact that you are not spending time doing what you say is important to you.
You are probably spending your time trying to accomplish all that you think has to come before you are allowed to reward yourself by attending to your own desires.
No, no, no! Living this way desensitises you to what you really want.
This, in turn, is leading you further away from your goal – the life you want to be living.
