“Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.” – Napoleon Hill
Week Twenty Seven
In weeks 13 and 14, you went deep examining your core needs and values. In the last few weeks you have discovered how you actually use your time. Use what you learned about your priorities and take some time to compare how they are actually showing up in your daily routine.
1) How much alignment is there between what you want to do and what you actually do with your time? About how much time do you spend on obligations – things that appear to be your responsibility?
2) How you feel about the way the time is spent is a clue to whether a shift would support you. Which ways that you spend your time do you feel negatively about? Which need or value are you neglecting? Which ones bring positive emotions? Which need or value are you honoring?
3) What do you do to get priorities that you do not really enjoy done? What can you do to change how you experience them? What can you do to prevent them from piling up?
4) How would you spend your time if the choice was yours alone and you had total control? What can you do to bring more of your activities in line with what you value?
5) Which places have you identified where time is available to transfer or provide a reserve if needed?
6) What form could your short respites take? How could these opportunities to rest or think actually make you more productive? How would this reserve be evident in different areas of your life? (e.g. your work, the management of your finances, your well-being, your relationships, your physical environment and your personal growth).
When you’ve designed your life to meet your needs and be aligned with your values, the possibility for fulfillment is maximized. This translates as expressing your needs and values through your choices and behaviors on a daily basis. This is not something you save for weekends or vacations. Doing so will open up your creativity and bring immense satisfaction and well-being.
In answering these questions, you will have revealed whether the way you spend your time is in line with your priorities. It allows you to take an objective look at the activities you are engaged in and examine whether you want to continue with the activity, what you think about it, and how you choose to feel about it. When you operate from this place of choice you can establish firmer time boundaries and when you commit to something because you see the benefit you can choose to do so wholeheartedly and take pleasure from it.
This fine grained analysis assists with identifying the smallest possible steps you can take to be in greater integrity. The advantage of doing this is that it becomes achievable. You are not overwhelmed by how far you have to go, but can focus instead on taking one step at a time and just what is needed to begin from your current point.