As you leave summer and all its fun distractions behind, it can be a useful time to stop and do a tune-up on your career, and your life. Here are nine questions to help you energize, prioritize, and focus as you move into the fall.
To start with, try asking each of these questions in each of the following areas:
- Work
- Relationships (partner/family/friends/community)
- Health
Where is the gain?
I see everything in terms of energy management (see here for more on that idea). So the idea to explore here is what gives you energy? What leaves you feeling energized? What contributes to your feeling more engaged ? What makes you feel alive?
Where is the drain?
The flipside of the first question is, what is draining your energy? What is leaving you feeling depleted or disengaged? What saps your confidence? What do you go flat when you think about?
What do I need to do more of?
In each of the areas of life you examine, there will often be things you need to do more of that stand out like a flashing neon sign. Write them down. Maybe you need to find a way to do more speaking in front of groups in your job because you love doing it. Maybe you need to spend more time with your partner. Or perhaps you need a little more time with your body in motion.
What do I need to do less of?
Just like the things you need to do more of, the things you need to do less of can stand out like a sore thumb. Need to eat a little less sugar? Is it time to stop being such a workaholic so you have time for the things in your life that really matter? Maybe you need to stop that addictive/compulsive behavior that is having a toxic effect on your life. Or you might simply need to stop watching less TV.
What do I need to prioritize higher?
It’s so easy to get sucked into putting out fires and putting other people’s agendas ahead of our own. Make a laundry list of all the things you have on your plate (think of it as a monster to-do list). Where are your highest priorities, theoretically? What are you actually prioritizing (i.e., where are you spending your time and energy)? What needs to change?
What do I need to prioritize lower?
What are you spending your time/energy/money on that really shouldn’t be such a high priority, compared to what you identified in the last question?
What do I need to add?
What do you need to add to your life? Maybe it’s more time with friends, or a fun hobby. Maybe you need to make your living space more beautiful, put flowers on your desk at work, or buy a plant.
What do I need to eliminate?
What is cluttering up your life? Are there activities you need to drop? Time to simplify, whether that is your lifestyle or your physical surroundings? Need to go through your home and make a run to Goodwill with some donations?
What really matters?
This might be a little more challenging and a little less obvious than some of the previous questions, but it’s possibly one of the most important questions you can ask. It’s so easy to get caught up with the ups and downs of life, being swept this way and that by the currents. Far too often, we spend immense amounts of energy on things that, in the greater scope of things, really don’t matter.
What matters in your life? What really matters? What do you deeply care about? What are you here to do? What has meaning for you?
The more you understand the answers to these questions about what matters, the better able you will be to focus on what’s important and not get thrown off by the temporary weather patterns life will inevitably send your way.
What action can I take?
Of course, these are all just navel-gazing if you don’t do anything with the insights. The purpose of these questions is to give you specific ideas on action you can take to increase the energy in your life and make it more rewarding and fulfilling
Go through the answers to each of the questions and make an action plan. Identify what you can do quickly and easily and do them. Then identify the shifts and changes that are going to take more effort and time, explore how you’re going to make that happen, and do it.
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