At my son's Boy Scout meeting the other day, I was reminded that there are three "anchors" in scouting: duty to self, duty to God, and duty to others. The boys are encouraged to do at least one thing to benefit each area every day.
This is a good way to view various areas of responsibility and it reminded me to keep balance in my life. Each day for the next 6 weeks or so, I will consciously pursue one "hard target" for each of four main areas of responsibility: self, family, work, and community. For me:
- Self involves self-development activities such as exercise, prayer or meditation, writing, learning new skills, and things like that.
- Family involves doing something to improve my home and family life, improving some aspect of my relationship with my wife and kids, etc.
- Work involves taking concrete action toward one of my work objectives, building relationships with people I work with, and other things to help my company achieve its mission.
- Community includes involvement in church activities, my work with the Boy Scouts, and doing things to help others.
Some of these areas may be difficult some days - I imagine I'll be challenged to come up with concrete actions for Family on my upcoming business trip to Europe, for example. I won't stress out, though - this gets back to my earlier post on Intention: I'll approach each day with sincere intent to do something good in each of these areas, then that intention will create the opportunities to do so.
One other qualifier on this - try not to look for simple, "check box" kinds of activities. Instead, try to identify an action that can bring positive forward progress toward a better life for you in each areas.
In my case, I think a focus on conscious completion of at least one substantive action in each of these areas over the next six weeks will be a good thing. Who knows- it may just become a habit!
What about you - what are your anchors? As you think about what you want to do each day, decide on one thing you can do in each of your anchor areas, write it down, and make it happen.
Related posts:
Read MoreRosa's done a wonderful job (and doesn't she always?) of touring the blogs of her community and provided a great snapshot of what's going on. Check it out (and thanks for the nod regarding my post titles, Rosa).
While you're over there, join in on the Managing With Aloha Jumpstart program she's been doing this year. It is a great way to get the zen of her wonderful book - and to get a better feeling of connectedness with her community. She started this in January, but it's never too late to jump in!
Read MoreVarious learning models I've encountered over the years talk about four stages of learning. I just read an article by Peter Bergulnd that reminded me of this - here's an excerpt
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 Learning occurs through repetition. A good way to make sense of this lies in seeing four stages: 1) unconsciously incompetent 2) consciously incompetent 3) consciously competent and 4) unconsciously competent. Let's take the example of a child riding a bike:
- Unconsciously incompetent. The child doesn't realize he can't ride a bike.
- Consciously incompetent. The child tries, but fails in riding the bike. The child knows what he's trying to do but is unable to do it.
- Consciously competent. This is where the child, with total concentration and focus, can ride the bike although sort of wobbly.
- Unconsciously competent. This is where the child, without thinking about it, rides the bike effortlessly. Bike riding, through repetition, has become a task that is natural as a habit - or a morning routine.
Source: Minnesota Technology® magazine, September/October 1999 |
The article has some very thought-provoking information in it, including a technique called the "Twenty Times Concept," which helps you tackle the idea of scalability of practices as your organization grows.
I won't recap the article any further here, since you can -- and should -- click over and read it for free. That said, the article brings to mind an interesting thought about personal development:
Most of my "stretch goals" and my best growth occurs once I become consciously incompetent. This really stimulates my desire to learn new things, and kicks me into data gathering mode. From there, I can systematically identify where my issues are, create a concrete goal, establish a plan and work toward my goal.
Who says ignorance is bliss? Knowing my limitations also enables me to determine where my risks are, and increases my odds of responding appropriately to those risks.
Sure, I want to be consciously competent, then unconsciously competent - but the real fun starts when I become consciously incompetent.
Read More"Contrast that with Visions that grab ahold of you deep inside and don't let go until you reach the finish line. These are the Visions that change things."A lot is written, said, theorized, and declared about the most effective ways to get things done. This is due, in part, to the volume of things going on in our lives. Couple this with the endless ways we make ourselves feel bad because we aren't getting as many things done as you'd like, and frustration is inevitable.
Most of what I read about getting stuff done deals with Technique, Systems, and Tactics, with lots of Purpose and Balance sprinkled on. Goodness knows, I've tried various recipes - some work well, some don't, some work sometimes, some work always. They all have one thing in common - I can screw up any of them because I don't predictably play by the rules.
In my quest for the perfect system I've come to some conclusions, thanks to a number of cosmic nudges toward "Intention" over the last year. The nudges have helped me conclude that Intention is the key element that determines whether any of the other stuff works (sort of like the One Ring that rules them all, in the Lord of The Rings).
Turns out I was on a quest (or something like it) and didn't realize it. This post is quite a bit more philosophical (and a lot longer) than my usual curious musings here, but I have heard a different muse today. Here is my travelog.
Road signs
The gurus of productivity all have their own twist on creating a compelling Vision of the future. Stephen Covey tells us to "Begin with the end in mind," David Allen says "You won't know how to do it until you see yourself doing it." - My friend Gene Kim recommended "The Message of a Master" to me last year, which deals with "broadcasting" your desires (intentions, if you will) to the cosmos triggering the cosmos to respond with what you need. It's an unassuming little book, and I'd forgotten about it. I found it under the edge of my bed this weekend and it came crashing back.
- Steve Pavlina's "Million Dollar Experiment" (I'm a participant) gathered a bunch of folks to "manifest" $1 million dollars through the power of Intention. I personally attribute thousands of dollars to this simple intention technique.
- I saw a PBS special by Wayne Dyer, in which he goes through how to use the "Power of Intention" to change your life for the better. I was so intrigued, I donated enough money to Public Broadcasting to get his whole collection on the subject.
I started listening to the Wayne Dyer CD's this week, and a surprising thing happened. It was very "out there," new age sounding stuff (and I'm usually a roll-your-eyes-in-the-face-of-new-age-things kinda person). Then the connections started happening.
Read MoreIf you haven't been keeping up with Polyphasic Pavlina, you may not know about polyphasic sleep. I wrote a bit about it earlier, if you want to catch up.
Well, today, I saw a post from Steve about Polyphasic Mutants, and it reminded me of an email thread Bren Connelly, Skip Angel, Lisa Haneberg, and I exchanged the other day. We somehow ended up talking about "polyphasic porn”, “sexy management”, and other things that would draw the kind of attention that Steve’s wakeful lifestyle have received to date. That conversation got me thinking.
First, lets settle on the definition of polyphasic, courtesy of MerckSource.com: (poly·pha·sic) (pol²e-fa¢zik) having or existing in many phases. With that in mind, I will try to describe other polyphasic activities that Steve might be able to investigate for us in the future:
Outlandish Polyphasic Definitions| polyphasic management |
3-4 hour blocks of micromanagement interrupted by short periods of inattention. This is in contrast to many traditional (monophasic?) management styles which utilize 3-4 hour blocks of inattention, interrupted by short periods of micromanagement. |
| polyphasic employment |
A technique that enables polyphasic sleepers to “double dip” or “triple dip” by holding 2 or 3 full time jobs at a time, and still work 40-hour weeks at each of them. If you sleep polyphasically and only have one job, you should be a doctor or a taxi driver. See “polyphasic porn.” |
| polyphasic porn |
When combined with polyphasic employment, this enables one person to run a successful 24-hour phone sex business. |
OK, so it’s a little ridiculous. I am amused by how much voyeuristic interest Steve’s polyphasic experiment has drawn, particularly the people who (apparently) are trying to get him to stop. I think a lot of people are just jealous that he is able to stick with it (I know I am). Besides, he lives in Vegas - what could be more fitting in a 24-hour city?
Hats off to you, Steve - and I look forward to your next boundary-expanding experiment.
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