A few years ago, one of my teachers gave us a Holiday Pep Talk before we left class and put forth a few pieces of wisdom that I never forgot.
One piece however, truly stuck out to me.
Accept your condition.
What do I mean by this?
Accepting your condition is all about understanding exactly where you are at in life.
It means looking at all different areas of your life – relationships, body, thoughts and emotions, and your environment (work, natural, etc) – and seeing things as they are…
Not as you want them to be.
Which lands me to how you can actually do this…
Audit your life.
The reason why you need to look at where you are now is…
- It builds the foundation for the next steps of where you want to go
- It allows you to accept your current condition which is probably the most important parts of the goal setting process
Accept where you are now, accept that your actions in the past have driven you to the place where you are at this moment, and you will be on your way along the developmental process and the goal setting path.
So, auditing your life…what does that actually mean in terms of implementation?
My favorite way of doing this is getting on a huge chalkboard and drawing the whole thing out in terms of, “Where am I now?”
When you do that it gives you a very clear and visual experience of what exactly is going on in your life.
Further, it helps you organize everything…it’s not just all floating around in your head.
When you audit your life, you give yourself the ability to go…
“Okay, where do I want to be?
“What do I see for myself?”
Understand what your vision is for the future and then work backwards from the end to what you have going on in your life right now.
Step by step by step by step.
This will give you a milestone based path instead of going into something completely blind. Then, out of those big milestones, write little lists underneath of, “What do I know now & what do I need to know?”
The what you know now is probably going to be very small and the what do I need to know is probably going to be very very long.
So make sure you are really investing time into understanding what skills, resources, and competencies that you need to bring into your life…
To help you get from where you are now to where you need to be in the future.
This is one of the most helpful processes that I go through with my own personal goal setting and I hope you will get something out of diving into it as well.
Action Steps For Today
Intention: To see clearly where you are in your life right now
Practice:
Get creative with this one. GET BIG! If you have lots of space to draw something out, please use it. Go get a big piece of construction paper or even use a wall if you have a chalkboard.
This is not a goal setting practice, but rather to grasp an understanding of where you are at right now. Dive into your relationships, body, thoughts and emotions, and environment (work, natural, etc). Take some time to really map out what the current state of play is – it will help you in the long run when you set your goals.
*PS. Chalkboard paint is super inexpensive. Go to Home Depot and look for it in the paint section. Get a roller and put it up on your wall! Great to have for big ideas and dreaming.
PS. If you’re feeling a bit “stuck” in life right now and looking for some help in navigating through your challenges, here at the 7 ways I can help you as a life coach www.1on1withevan.com