Camp MOJO

Finding and Filling Your Gaps

by Bill Brakemeier on 16/10/09 at 5:04 am

What did you do today to honor what you value most in life?

Tricky question. First, you must be able to put a finger on what you value most in life. Second, you must know what activities, when chunked down to daily activities, are indeed steps on the path toward fulfilling your values.

Once we hit about age 30, most people start to look at their lives and wonder “why am I here?” We begin to ponder our existence and wonder if there is some higher purpose for our lives. If we are a part of something bigger than ourselves.

It is a rare soul who knows his or her purpose. And once we discover it, even fewer are able to live their lives – day to day, moment to moment – in the fulfillment of their purpose.

How about you?
Do you know what is most important to you?
Do you know your purpose?
Are you working toward them every day?

In my last post you learned how to begin to define what you value most, based on what you are already doing in life. If you haven’t already, do this exercise before moving on.

Taking your time-tracking sheet, now it’s time to label each activity. Write one of the following terms beside that which describes the benefit you get out of each activity in which you partake:

Spiritual
That which enhances your spirit
prayer, meditation, attending worship, gardening, yoga, a leisurely bath

Mental
That which stimulates your mind
reading, puzzles, creating through art or music, cooking

Vocational
That which furthers your career
resume writing, trainings or classes, networking, researching your work

Financial
That which increases your monetary wealth
trending stocks, searching for real estate, reading/attending wealth topics, balancing the checkbook and budgeting, clipping coupons

Familial
That which builds you a stronger family
outings, dinners, game night, housekeeping, driving people around, yardwork, helping children with homework

Social
That which strengthens your community and your place within it
volunteering, sharing dinner with friends, singing in choir, online social networking

Physical
That which betters your body, making you healthier
working out, eating healthy foods, doctor visits, running, cycling, swimming, massage, acupuncture

Dead Time
Anything else
TV, video games, zoning out, mindless time online

NOTE: Classification of times is provided as an example only. You may get a different benefit from an activity than listed above. For example, depending on the person and the circumstance and topic, networking can be social, vocational, career, or even dead-time.  Working out can be physical or mental. Yoga can be spiritual or even social. And for some, the act of showering is dead-time, but for others it can be mental or even spiritual!

Also, one activity can provide multiple benefits. For example, dinner with the family can provide both physical and familial benefits. In this scenario, split the time accordingly.

Now add up the minutes you spend in each of the seven areas of life.

Where do you spend your time?
Is it where you thought?
What surprises you?

Your highest priority is NOT what you THINK it is or what you SAY it is. Your highest priority is where you spend the most of your time, right now. Not where you WANT to spend your time. Where you ARE spending your time.

Time logging is an accurate way to identify the tiny changes that will make huge differences in life direction. Once people realize how much time they spend in areas that do not lead to their highest good, energy about that activity shifts and change is easier to make.

If you compare your time log to your values and find that they ARE in alignment, congratulations! Very few people are able to make their values so much of a priority that they live them on a daily basis.

You are the kind of person people admire, respect, and see you as happy and successful. And you are likely to be so focused on your values, and present in your situations, that you don’t even notice it. Take your talents out into the world. Manifest and serve humanity with your greatest gifts.

But if you are like the rest of us, you may have found some incongruencies between your values in your time.

Up next: Prescription for Value-Gap-Itis

We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being.

- Thomas Merton