March 31, 2008 – 1:00 pm
How much value do you place on the things you do? What are they worth to you?
The value you place on everything, including your own life, will determine how you spend your time each day. Each time we decide to spend time on an activity we are making a choice based on values. This extends even to our working lives.
Some of you will disagree with me about having such choices regarding your job so I encourage you to think of it this way.
| When we value the money we get from doing something (a job, contract or business) we will choose to keep on doing it until something changes. |
So that means sometimes we value the consequences of an activity and not necessarily the activity itself. In the case of our work, we might value the pay enough to keep on working.
When we love doing the things we value that is when we find real joy. This is part of what I call fulfilling our life purpose. The key is to work out what we value and what we love doing.
Do you enjoy doing those things you currently value? If not, what do you need to change so that those things of value are also those things you enjoy doing?
Most people when asked about what they would like to change in their life will think of their job! “If only I didn’t have to go to work I would get so much more out of life.” Some questions that might help you get a better perspective on your life are:
- What is it about your job that makes you unhappy?
- Can you change anything so that you would enjoy it?
- If not, what is stopping you from changing jobs?
- Is it really my job that is stopping me from enjoying those things I value?
If you are happy with your life just the way it is then I say to you “Well done! You are living your dream, you are on your way to fulfilling your life purpose.”
If your level of happiness could do with a boost, then please answer these questions as honestly and completely as you can. Question 1 is an idealistic question. That is, you answer it as if there are no limitations.
- What would you do with the extra time if you didn’t have to go to work or simply had more time each day? (For example, spend more time with my family, go on a holiday, climb Mt Everest)
- How would doing that (your answer to Q1) improve your life or the lives of others? (For example, my family and I would have so much more fun, I would get to visit all the places I have dreamed about, it would fulfill a childhood dream)
These questions have been asked many times before and just about now a lot of internet marketers will shove a special offer in front of you that promotes something like “quit your job in 30 days“. I am not going to do that. Instead, I am going to ask you one more question.
| What is really stopping you from doing those things you answered in Q1? Try to leave your job out of the answer. If you are having trouble with the answer, keep on reading and try the value/time exercise below. |
| The answer to Q1 represents our dreams - the things we would do “if only we had the time”. |
We all get 24 hours a day. We all get holidays. We all know how to save up for something special. So what is really stopping you?
Once you have had a chance to think about that, back up a little and consider what value you have placed on all the things in your life.
Identify each thing you do and give it a value from 1 - 10, where 1 is the lowest and 10 is the highest value. Also estimate the total time you spend on that thing as an approximate percentage of your life.
For example:
- sleep: value 7, time 30%
- watching TV: value 5, time 10%
- family: value 10, time 10%
- and so on…
In this example, it indicates that on a typical day you would sleep for a little over 7 hours, watch 2.4 hours of TV and spend 2.4 hours on your highest value activity - family. Try to make the percentages add up to 100% - or 24 hours.
Over to you - what are some of the things that fill up your day? Value indicates how important a thing is to you. The time percentage should only be a rough estimate. Don’t fret about making it accurate to the nearest minute.
- work
- sleep
- meals (preparing, eating, cleaning up after)
- family (picking up, dropping off, sport outings)
- socializing
- watching TV
- surfing the web and reading too many long blog posts
- church
- dreaming about a better life
- others
- add your answer from question 1 above and give it a value and time estimate.
End of part 1. Part 2 of “What is your life purpose?” will be posted later. Stay tuned.
Brendan.
Posted in Freedom, Self Improvement, Wisdom | No Comments »
