WORKLIFEDESIGN

As the sugar haze from the xmas pudding begins to fade and a new year scuttles towards us, it is perhaps timely to reflect upon the last 12 months. End of year reflection is not only about working out what you’re NOT going to do in the new year but also acknowledging the things you have done this year, what you’ve learned and what positive things you’re taking with you into the next phase of life.

There are plenty of end of year reflection questions but the ones I’ve been using this year are an adaptation of questions by coach Shirley Anderson (who runs the Coaching Salon – which is fabulous BTW). I like these questions because they’re not just about achievements but coming back to what’s most important – doing things that are in sync with our values, being surrounded by people we care about, letting go of the shit that doesn’t serve us, being grateful for the life we have …

Grab a cuppa (or a glass of sparkly) and give the following some thought over the coming week:

Year End Questions

What are the 25 things I’m most proud of accomplishing this year?

What were my disappointments and what did let go of?

Who am I most happy to have in my life?

What is the most significant area of personal growth for me?

What would I have done differently, and what is the lesson I got from it?

What 5 things am I most grateful for, and how will I show it?

(adapted from questions by Shirley Anderson of the Coaching Salon)

I’ve written previously on the brilliance of mindfulness and thought it might be time to start sharing some of the resources that I’ve found most beneficial over the years.

Today’s resource is a 10 minute mindfulness meditation and is based on the meditations of Jon Kabat Zinn (the guy who brought mindfulness into the western secular mainstream more than 20 years ago with his Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction programme at the Uni of Massachusetts Medical Centre).

If you’ve not done any mindfulness practice before then the following short guided meditation is a gentle introduction. It gets you started by helping you focus on your breath which you can then use as an anchor for calm throughout the rest of your day.

To begin your mindfulness practice, set aside ten minutes today, find a quiet place you can sit and not be disturbed, and listen to the audio. Repeat tomorrow. And the next day. And so on for 7 days.

Download the 10 Minute Mindfulness audio (MP3, 7.7MB, 8:25min)

If you are interested in developing your mindfulness practice further, I’ll be sharing longer body scans and full mindfulness meditations with you over the coming weeks. So, be sure to subscribe to the monthly Brilliant! Ideas for Work and Life newsletter, the worklifedesign RSS feed or follow @worklifedesign on Twitter to receive notification when I upload them.

OMG! What am I doing with my life! The DIY Life Guide to creating a life and work you love

Free ebook for subscribers

With the silly season fast approaching, I thought it might be timely to share with you my little all-in-one resource for those who may be scheduling some existential angst or career crisis over the coming months.

This 30-page ebook helps you work out what you want from life and how you can start making it happen. You can work through the eight steps in an afternoon or use it to guide your change over the next eight weeks or eight months.

Each of the steps, from defining your vision to working out what you’re doing about it today, comes with exercises and/or worksheets to help you get your thoughts (and what your committing to!) on paper. Some of the exercises are old friends (hello Future Letter!) and some are new to The Studio (such as Discovering Your Strengths, FeelThinkDo, and more).

You can get access to the free download of OMG! What am I doing with my life! The DIY Life Guide to creating a life and work you love by subscribing to Brilliant!

If you’re a current Brilliant! subscriber, you’ll receive your direct link to the ebook in this month’s Brilliant! newsletter in your Inbox tomorrow.

If you would like to receive monthly updates of what’s new in The Studio, just subscribe to our monthly ezine, Brilliant! Ideas for Work and Life.

Where are you headed?

This is one of the four basic questions I always ask someone who wants to change some part of their life or work.

I find that we can be very good at detailing what’s wrong or what we don’t want or how things should be different, but very few people are clear about what they do want. Even if they are clear about aspects of it, there’s no overall vision for how it is integrated with the rest of their life.

So is it any surprise that we have difficulty making decisions when we have nothing to guide us?

Today’s Studio treat is an exercise that is surprisingly simple and yet quite powerful. The Future Letter asks you to write a letter, dated one year hence, to someone you care about. It asks you

What do you want your life to look like in twelve months?

How will you feel?

What will you be doing?

and other questions to help you get all those hopes and dreams and possibilities that have been swimming around in your head written down.

It also helps you to start bringing your values to life.

This exercise will be enhanced if you’ve already done your Wheel of Life, Sorting Out Your Values and your MyLand Visualisation but you can also just dive in to the Future Letter and explore your values and life domains more fully later.

DOWNLOAD the Future Letter exercise

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‘The real act of discovery is not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.’ Marcel Proust

The use of metaphor is a powerful way to discover who we are and find our place in the world. It can be the lens which brings what’s important or what’s really going on into sharp focus. One of my favourite visualisations, My Land, uses the metaphor of our inner landscape as a country – complete with its own values, traditions, celebrations and border control.

I love this visualisation. It takes a right-brain approach and quickly taps into the values and beliefs that are important in our lives. It reminds us that we each have our own “land” but we often can’t see it – or assume that we live in the same “land” as others.

I first encountered My Land about five years ago. It was one of the excellent self-discovery exercises introduced to me by my coach at the time, Fernando Lopez.

I’ve been wanting to “check in” with My Land ever since and see if anything has changed – but it’s just not the same when you’re reading the text. So I recorded it for myself – and found it still works a treat. This time, I found that while a lot of the terrain is familiar (vibrant, cosmopolitan, almost boho), I’m much clearer about who “my people” are and was surprised to realise that MyLand is very similar to a place I lived 15 years ago.

So, I share it with you here for you to see your own land with new eyes. Who knows what you might discover …

Enjoy your trip.

DOWNLOAD: My Land visualisation (9 minutes: 8MB mp3)

If you would like to receive monthly updates of what’s new in The Studio, just subscribe to our monthly ezine, Brilliant! Ideas for Work and Life.

“It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.” Roy Disney

In order to go into the world and live a life you love, you need to know a little bit about yourself. You need to know what’s important to you, what your values are, and how they can guide all the decisions – big and little – you make in your life.

Being aware of your values not only helps you with decisions but also gives you direction. You are able to ask yourself at any time, “Is doing this helping me create a life I love, or is it hindering me?” You begin to live with intention, rather than adrift in the drama of your own and other people’s lives. Your purpose becomes clear.

Getting in touch with your values also helps you reconnect with and understand your passion for life.

A passion for animal rescue may reflect how important the treatment of all living creatures is for you.

A passion for the provision of services for immigrants may reflect how important social justice is for you.

A passion for, um, disco music may reflect how important feeling joy may be for you.

There are all sorts of ways to get clear on your values. You can look at moments in your life when you’ve had heightened emotions (happy, sad, angry, etc) and draw out the value that was being honoured or in conflict in those situations.

One of the easiest ways I’ve found is by doing a Values Sort. It took me 20 years to find a really good list of values but I finally came across the list used in research by Miller, C’DeBaca, Matthews and Wilbourne which captures the core values quite well. (As well as having scope to ‘add your own values’)

To help you get clear on what’s important to you, I’ve developed the handy Sorting Out Your Values exercise.

Download Sorting Out Your Values

Today I share with you the Number One resource that’s been downloaded from my website over the last five years…

Reflective Practice is a technique used by professionals such as teachers, nurses and therapists to increase their learning and effectiveness on the job. At its simplest, it is applying critical reflection to incidents or situations we’d like to understand more fully or get a different outcome with in the future.

I learned about Reflective Practice as part of my psych education and found it perfect for my ongoing professional development when I started coaching. Initially I used it for myself – to understand myself better and become a more effective coach. Then I started using it with my mentee coach clients to help them understand themselves and their coaching better. In 2005 I gave a presentation to an ICF Chapter and that’s where the original worksheet (Reflective Practice For Coaches) came from. Since then I’ve used a variation of it with a range of clients who just wanted to understand themselves and a situation better or be more effective in the work.

So I’ve updated the worksheet to be ‘Reflective Practice for the rest of us’ (or Reflective Practice For Work and Life). No matter what you do, you can use this simple technique to respond more thoughtfully in highly charged social situations or relationships, or, be more effective at work.

Reflective Practice brings awareness, insight and simple steps for change.

DOWNLOAD: Reflective Practice for Work and Life (PDF)

DOWNLOAD: Reflective Practice for Coaches (PDF)

If you would like to receive monthly updates of what’s new in The Studio, just subscribe to our monthly ezine, Brilliant! Ideas for Work and Life.

Or follow us at twitter @worklifedesign

This week I’m sharing one of my personal worksheets. This is what I use to stay focused and to minimise those 3.00am eyes-bolt-open, oh-my-god-what-am-I-doing moments.

Over the years I’ve found people who are very clear about what they are doing (ie their vision) have some sort of physical, visual reminder that they see daily.

Some people have Vision Boards.

Others have Treasure Maps.

I have my Ducks.

Or more specifically, my Ducks In a Row.

My Ducks came out of having a moment of terror where I thought I’d made a terrible life choice. Then the phrase, “No, it’s okay, I have my ducks in a row” came into my head and I felt much calmer, focused and okay with my situation. In fact, when I considered my “ducks” (ie all the things I had setup and were going to generate lots of love and income over the next 12 months) then things actually looked pretty good.

So I decided that I had to get my Ducks out of my head and onto paper. And the Ducks In a Row Worksheet was born.

As you can see, it brings together my priority projects – with the values, strengths, passion, vision, goals and next action steps – onto one page in an easy reference style. I have a copy at my desk. I have a copy in my Dump Book.

It’s a working document which means it changes weekly as I get new information, move to the next stage of a project, or decide to back/front burner projects.

You obviously need to do a little bit of work to complete it. It’s probably a two-coffee activity. I’ve included the Master Lists as a second page where you can brainstorm/list your values, strengths, passions, and crazy dreams. (And then you draw on these Master Lists to complete the Ducks).

So, there are no excuses for flapping about in a tizz. Get quacking!

DOWNLOAD The Ducks In a Row Worksheet

(BTW the cute little ducks come from freerangeduck.org)

If you would like to receive monthly updates of what’s new in The Studio, just subscribe to our monthly ezine, Brilliant! Ideas for Work and Life.

Or follow us at twitter @worklifedesign

I don’t use the Wheel of Life much these days (as most of my work with client’s is work-focused) but when I do, I’m always blown away by how effective it is. After this simple 10 minute exercise, a client often has new insight into their lives, clarity about their life and work direction, and renewed energy. It’s pretty neat… which is why I share it with you now. Enjoy!

The Wheel of Life

The Wheel of Life (WOL) is one of the most commonly used coaching tools.  Most coaches have one hidden in their toolbox. I didn’t use it for years because I wanted to be different. But I remembered how many of my clients found it very valuable. So recently I’ve come back to it with fresh eyes and a new respect. It’s a wonderful exercise that draws power from its simplicity.

What is it?

The WOL consists of a circle that’s divided into eight segments (like pieces of a pie or spokes in a wheel). Each segment represents an area of life. These often vary, depending on the coaching focus (or which version of the wheel is being used).

How do you use it?

The WOL is a great introductory ‘snapshot’ of your life. You rate each area of life on a scale from 0 to 10 and draw a little line across the relevant segment. Once completed you can quickly see which areas of your life need a bit of attention.

Where does it come from?

I have no idea who created the first wheel. (Do you know? Email me.) There are so many variations of it around that it’s hard to know what the original version is. The one I use is an adaptation of Whitworth, Kimsey-House & Sandahl’s (1998) version (found in Co-active Coaching). I love their Wheel because they give a little wheel example and refer to the ‘bumpy ride’ when your wheel is out of balance.

What’s so good about it?

It’s simple. It lets you define what’s important in each area of your life and rate how you’re going against your own subjective ideal. This is compared to some other ‘discovery’ tools that impose a value system of success or satisfaction on you).

It’s visual. For those of us who prefer to receive information in the form of pictures, the wheel sends an instant message of what’s going on.

It’s adaptable. You can take it to a deeper level and access core issues from it. You can use it to draw out a vision. And you can use it as a precursor to goal setting (as with one presented here). Oh, and it’s the perfect metaphor for balance and wholeness.

It’s quick. It only takes a couple of minutes to complete so you’re not wading through questions for 45 minutes.

See where you’re at in your life (and peer through the window of how you want things to be) with the WORKLIFEDESIGN Wheel of Life (pdf)

Ahh, Monday morning. How I love thee…

I rarely check my email over the weekend so by the time Monday morning rolls around, my Inbox is full to the brim with fascinating things that could suck at least 28 hours of the day away. Combine this with a rapidly expanding to-do list in my head and a sense of anticipation that “this week I’ll actually get a substantial slab of work completed” and things start resembling chaos.

So taking some time-out on Monday mornings to organise my week is essential.  I’ve found that I need to move beyond a to-do list of things that need my urgent attention and check in with what’s important (goals and priorities), what I need to do to realise these priorities and scheduling it into my calendar.

For this worthy, weekly task I have my handy Weekly Actions Worksheet. It’s fairly straight forward:

1. Check-in with my overall goals (eg beautiful home, work I love, etc).

2. Determine what this week’s priorities will be (depends on where I am, what needs attention, what I feel like doing this week).

3. Write down the ‘next steps’ or actions for each of the priorities and/or goals. Plus anything that may be floating by that needs attention but is part  of a greater goal (such as ‘feeding myself’, ‘having hot water’, etc). I keep the actions easy, small, managable. I can always create new actions later in the week if I complete them.

4. Work out what I’ll do on what days, and perhaps when (AM, PM, or specific time)

5. Transfer whatever reminders I need to my iCal

6. Refer back to the worksheet every morning during the week. Add, delete or change as necessary.

Download Monday Morning Weekly Actions Worksheet (MMWAW!)