30 Days to Simplify Your Life. Janet Rowland
Overview
The only thing that stands between a man and what he wants from life is often merely the will to try it and the faith to believe that it is possible. ~ Rich DeVos
We all deal with commitment overload. One of the big causes of stress is just having too much to do. Usually that comes from saying, “yes”, to too many things. Our family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, kids and parents ask us to do things, and we have a hard time saying, “no”. We are asked to do things that are, for the most part, admirable things. They just don’t fulfill our purpose or help us achieve our goals. Unless we figure out what our purpose is, we will continue to struggle with saying, “no”. We will continue to allow the urgent to take precedence over the important until we define our purpose and only focus on those things that help us achieve our goals.
Simplify
Simplifying isn’t just about organizing. Yes, getting organized is a part of the process, but it’s also about getting rid of the excess. The purpose of this book isn’t just to help you get organized so you can accomplish more. Rather, the purpose is to help you accomplish the things that are most important to you, and get rid of everything else that is clutter. Not just things but obligations and even relationships.
Day One- Your Purpose
The future depends on what we do in the present. - Mahatma Gandhi
Your Values
How do you want it all to end? If you want to live your life to the fullest, you’ll need to spend some time thinking about what you want to accomplish before you die. Imagine you are at your own funeral. Who is there and what are they saying? What is your spouse saying? Your children? Your parents? Your friends?
Here’s another way to think about it. Would you do anything different today, if you knew you only had six months to live?
To get at the heart of what is really important to you, ask yourself what you would do with your life if you had no need for money? How would you spend your time? Would you continue to work? Would you volunteer for a worthy cause?
Too often we are so busy doing the things we think are important that we fail to really evaluate the direction of our life. Life is busy. In most cases if we don’t put something on our calendar it won’t get done. But too often we don’t think about putting time with the family on our calendar. In the back of our minds we think we would like a promotion, but we have never listed the steps that are necessary to improve our skills and abilities in order to get that promotion. Most importantly, have we scheduled time to accomplish those things.
Day Two- Your Personal Mission Statement
Knowing what you want is the first step in getting it. ~Louise Hart
Your Personal Mission Statement.
In Day One, you spent some time thinking about who you are, what is important to you, and what you want to accomplish in your life. Today we’ll add some clarity and pull it all together in a Personal Mission Statement.
Don’t be afraid of this, we’ll share some helpful tools. A Personal Mission Statement is simply a written statement that points you toward your goals. Even thought it’s relatively simple, it is an important step because the things you’ll do for the next several days are built on this. By taking the time to clarify your focus now, you will identify the things that are most important to you, which will make it much easier to say ‘no’ to the unimportant things in the future.
It can be boiled down to this:
My purpose is to use [my skills/abilities/passion] to achieve [big picture goals- both personal and professional], based on [my values].
There are many tools available to help you draft your Personal Mission Statement. Here are two on-line versions. For both options you simply answer several questions and the program turns your answers into a Mission Statement.
Mission Statement Builder- by Nightingale- http://www.nightingale.com/mission_select.aspx This one takes a big picture approach. It takes less than 10 minutes to complete and your finished product will be one paragraph.
Mission Statement Builder- by Franklin Covey. http://www.franklincovey.com/msb/ This one is a little more detailed. It takes a little longer to complete, and when it’s done, the finished product is several paragraphs, and could be as long as one page. However, a lot of what this program develops can be used when you get in to goal setting tomorrow.
Here’s an example: To live my life with integrity, honesty and prayerful intent (values) and use my creativity and focus (skills) to make a positive difference in my family, my community and my country (personal goals) and inspire others to do the same. (professional goals).
Day Three- List Your Roles and Goals
Knowing what you want is the first step in getting it. ~Louise Hart
List Your Roles - List Your Goals.
Make a list all of your roles such as wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, supervisor, employee, church member or service club member. Now review your answers from Day One and your Mission Statement from Day Two. Next to each of your roles list one goal for the upcoming year.
To help you with this process refer to Day One when you imagined what would be said about you at your funeral.
If you want your kids to say you always had time for them then set your goals accordingly. Include goals such as weekly family nights or setting aside time to read together.
If you want your husband to say you were his best friend, then develop goals that will lead to that outcome such as a weekly date night or starting a hobby together.
If you want be promoted to Division President for your company list the thing you need to do to get there.
The next step is to set a deadline for each of you goals and then spend some time thinking about the next steps for each goal. What do you need to accomplish in the next quarter? In the next month? In the next week? In the next day? Break it down into small steps and then transfer each step to your calendar and your to-do list.
Day Four- Keep Just One To-Do List
Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. ~Seneca the Younger
Keep one comprehensive to-do list.
While it’s easy to jot down things you need to do on whatever is handy at the moment, it is critical to keep one comprehensive list. If you don’t, you will double and triple book yourself and forget about important things you need to do.
There are many different systems you can use for keeping a comprehensive to-do list. Planners such as those sold by Franklin-Covery are good, especially for those who like the old fashioned paper way. There are also programs available for your computer and a lot of apps that are available for your blackberry, iPhone or iPad. Even just keeping a tablet with a written list works just fine. Just find a method that is easy for you because if it is too complicated or if it’s not with you all the time you won’t keep up with it.
Do it now. Buy a planner, a notebook or download an app, and start using it today.
Day Five- Review and Refocus
It is a man’s task to execute, within the time that God allots to him on Earth, a human mission to do God’s will. ~Arnold J Toynbee
Review and Re-Focus
Now that you have one comprehensive to-do list take a few minutes to review it and compare it to your goals.
What are