Who you are begins with What you do!

Who you are begins with What you do!

 

Read the title once more!  Then, answer the following questions. Before you start, let me tell you that these are BIG questions, so take your time as you reflect on each and think about your response. Go one step further and write your responses down as this is a powerful action that is an important strategy in change.

What does the title mean to you in your life right now?

What do your actions advertise to others about who you are? 

What do your non-actions advertise to others about who you are?

What is happening in your life at this moment – that impedes on your ability to complete your actions? 

Picture yourself in a helicopter looking down at YOU right now! What are you doing to expand or transform your world in the way that you would like for the remainder of 2012? What needs to happen to push you towards achieving your ultimate aim?

In asking myself these and other questions throughout my life, the definitive conclusion always rings through loud and clear, regardless of how I may have tried to get away from the fact. To become, involves the (sometimes arduous) task of taking action. It involves doing something.

Regardless of what is happening in your life right now, what you want to do or where you want to be, the key to constructing your reality lies in your ability to apply fervent and positive action.

As defined in the Oxford English Dictionary, action is ‘the process of doing something to achieve an aim’. 

First things first, what do you want your future to be?

What is your vision? 

How far ‘out there’ is it? 

What can you do to bring it closer to the here and now? 

What can you do today to start the process?

In his comically titled book ‘Eat that Frog’, motivational Guru, Brian Tracy asserts that many of us spend much of our time on ‘low value tasks’ because we have not devoted any or enough time to brainstorm and set specific things to work on. This could be things as simple as:

1. Making telephone calls to enquire about a course, job or business activity
2. Attending events, reading or having dialogue on matters that enrich and empower us
3. Self manage by diarising and action planning on a daily basis.

It could also be that we do in fact spend time on ‘high value tasks’, except that the time spent on our own ‘high value tasks’ and the ‘high value tasks’ of an employer can be vastly disproportionate. So maybe, it’s about re-visiting the way that you spend your time and prioritising yourself as ‘high value’. 

Who you Are Begins with What you Do. Being accountable for yourself, means taking responsibility for doing what you committed to saying you were going to do. 

Here is a life-mapping exercise that if followed by daily action, will support the process of transforming your life. This will help you to become more of ‘who you are’ and ‘who you would like to be’ in 2012. 

For the purpose of this exercise, you will need a pen, paper and approximately 30 minutes to yourself. Think of this time as ‘life planning’ time that is crucial to you living on purpose. This activity is an extension of your coaching session and will help you to stay focused on your action plan for accomplishing the journey goals that you set, because you know that they will contribute to your transcending to another level of being - to another level of you.  

1. 1.Draw four circles on a piece of paper. Number them 1 to 4.
2. 2.Write a heading for each circle: ‘My Goal; My Life; My Week; My day.
3. 3.Circle 1 is the goal you set in the coaching session – write this down.
4. 4.Circle 2 represents your life – if this goal is not fulfilled, what will this mean to me? What direction will my life take?
5. 5.Circle 3 is your week – If necessary, re-adjust the actions and timings. Perhaps you need to be more realistic about when and what you can do. What might need to change to ensure that actions happen, rather than none at all?
6. 6.In Circle 4 – What can I do each day to create a successful week?

Remember that your initial goal must be a PLAYful goal.  This means it must be Present, Loyal, Affirmative and set in a way for it to Yield Results*. 

By looking at your PLAYful* session goal through the lens of the life-mapping exercise, you will be motivated to take control of your life and re-affirm the how of achieving your results; you will raise your awareness of consequences and realities of action or non-action. Crucially, you will raise your understanding of how the specific performances that you implement, impact upon your life in the medium and long term. 

A friend of mine once remarked that ‘thought without action is pointless’. How right she was! The critical thing to note is that the achievement of your goal is through the application of the action. Your coaching session enabled you to create a road map and a clearer idea of what has to be done to spur you on. The bottom line is that what you do on a daily basis and continue to do each and every day will determine the quality of your life – and only you can do what it takes. Remember, Who you Are, Begins with What you Do. 

So, make your life a priority! Do at least one thing every day that will contribute to the effective achievement of your daily, weekly and life goals, thus contributing to your dynamically and wonderfully transformed self. 

“Each and every day, I do something to fulfil my life’s purpose”. ~ Rebecca Gordon

*The PLAYful Goal-setting Model (TM) - Rebecca Gordon 

Brian Tracy, B. (2004). Eat that Frog! Get more of the important things done – Today! Hodder and Stoughton: London.