With Steps #1 and #2 under your belt, you can start to see your real potential take shape. (If you’re coming to this newsletter in the middle of this series, I encourage you to start at the beginning. Go to Step #1. Then Step #2.)
However, if you’ve been following along, you’ve gotten a taste of what you are capable of. You cranked back the alarm clock and made room for new ideas. You’ve envisioned a better you, better home, better career, better travel.
When you up your game, you open yourself up new opportunities that weren’t available before. When you see yourself playing at this new level, things get clearer. Goals become tangible. Ideas come easier. Resources show up.
In Step #2, I bet you envisioned some pretty cool outcomes. Now’s the time to channel your energy into a few discreet areas.
We Need a Framework
While I was reading Jack Canfield’s The Success Principles for the first time, one of the exercises was to list the 101 life goals I wanted to accomplish before I died. When I sat down to create my list, it seemed both liberating and daunting at the same time.
Ideas were flowing from a stream of consciousness that I could hardly write fast enough. That was liberating. Then the flow slowed down. I had only written about 40 goals and couldn’t think of any more.
So I referred back to my framework–everything I wanted to be, do, have, and give to the world. This wasn’t a random list of decadent possessions. It represented what I wanted to become, who I wanted to be with, and where I wanted to go.
Thoreau said, “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”
Wake Up Call
Upping your game is your chance to redefine your life and become a bigger person.
- It’s to think bigger–invest time to think.
- It’s to learn more–invest time to learn.
- It’s to serve many–invest time to serve.
We’re unable to honor these loftier goals unless we set aside the time to take action. Do you see how those precious 15 minutes can be invested? Can you see how much more you can do in 30 minutes? 60?
You won’t get there overnight. And I’m certainly not “there” yet, but I have achieved many goals – and I’m creating new ones.
Think Life Dimensions
Consider this framework of Life Dimensions. Select a maximum of three. Then commit. It’s your life.
- Professional – career, leadership, service delivery, results
- Financial – income, investing, managing bills, savings, debts, assets
- Relational – family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, clients
- Spiritual – faith, church, small groups, prayer, serving
- Mental – reading, creating, meditating, problem solving, training
- Physical – fitness, cooking/nutrition, yoga, rest, breathing, walks
- Charitable – contributing time and energy, volunteering
- Personal – household projects, purchases, improvements
- Recreational – hobbies, sporting events, vacations, road trips
- Entrepreneurial – active investments, partnerships, ventures
- Social – entertaining, dinner with friends, holidays
It’s taken me years to wake up by 4:30am. I’m probably making up for the time I’ve lost by “sleeping in” and joining the rush hour crowd. I’m grateful for this new habit. It allows me to grow. Now it’s your turn.
That’s a wrap on Step #3 on Upping Your Game. Two to go. Any questions so far? Let’s step up to the plate together.