I am reading the book, Quantum Success by Sandra Anne Taylor. It is raising my awareness of my thinking and how that is impacting my outcomes. One thing on my mind from this book is that I need to act daily in each of my goal areas. This is weaving my priorities into my daily life – by setting a goal I have decided that this is a priority and for that to be true it needs to show up in my checkbook and calendar.
Years ago, someone said that if we really want to know our priorities look at our checkbook and calendar – what we truly value will be evident in how we choose to spend our time and money. This made sense to me and if you were to look in those places you would see my priorities and yet perhaps not as much as I once thought.
In broad brushstrokes, my goals would be clear. What I do realize is that the detail and specificity of evidence of my goals in my daily habits are not so clear. Daily focus on my goals moves me to a higher level of commitment – I am not taking time off from my priorities. As I was reading the book on a Saturday morning, I paused. What does that really mean for not working weekends?
I realized that despite being self-employed for several years I still had an “employee mindset” about days off work. As an employee, I was spending Monday-Friday building someone else’s dream (the organization that employed me).
My weeks, now, are much more fluid – “days off”, I have come to understand are not relevant in the way they were when I worked for someone else. As an employee I traded time for money during the week. Today my “work” is creating and living the life of my dreams. This does include GoalFirm and much more.
Re-defining “work” as living well requires a shift in perspective toward days off and evidence of my goals. The evidence needs to be quite clear each day! And equally true is that I will see evidence of the goal I chose to focus on that day. Some days my focus is on relationships and the evidence is spending time with friends. On other days I may be focused on health and productivity, so the evidence looks like a long walk with MiMi (my Black Labrador) and cooking, so meals are in the freezer. You get the idea…
This level of commitment requires a strong desire and willingness to focus daily on what we are working to bring into our life.
Have you looked for evidence that you are focusing on your priorities? Your checkbook and calendar are good places to start.
