One of my greatest influences among business leaders was Stephen Covey. Author of the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey recognized that your effectiveness in the world begins with you. You are ultimately responsible for the quality of your life, and this begins with your habitat.
Years ago I participated in one of Covey’s workshops, called “First Things First.” Weekly planning was framed in the context of the legacy you want to leave in the world when you’re gone. From there we focused on the bottom lines you need to have in place to be sure that you’re effective. These things he called “What Matters Most.”
That process was the foundation for the time management system I use today, which I’m going to share with you here. Bottom line, you put in place what you have to do to ‘preserve the organism.’ It’s what you need to do to sustain everything else you’re about.
Before you put anything else into your schedule, put in things to take care of yourself mentally, spiritually, emotionally and physically. As you read in my March 18th post, each quarter the Wheel of Creativity corresponds with one of these areas.
Moving through the Wheel integrates them all, along with the two principles of energy: active (masculine) and active (feminine). In every area of your life you need to be exercising both of these muscles.
So let’s do this! Here’s the way:
- Get a piece of paper and some colorful pens.
- Divide a piece of paper into four quarters.
- In each of the top left quarter write the words at the top: Mind = Air = Vision.
- Next, divide the section into two halves and name them: Actions and Self-Care.
- Move counter-clockwise around the page until your sheet looks like the one below.
- Now, fill in your sheet with one activity in Action and one in Self-Care. An Action is something you commit to do, make happen. A Self-Care is also an action but is about turning inward to receive and allow yourself to be nourished.
- Use this worksheet as your action plan for the week.
- Schedule these things first.
This worksheet becomes your action plan for the week in each of these areas. For all you create in the world and all you give to those around you, you need to be replenishing yourself as well.
It’s time to upgrade your habitat!
Your habitat – your physical environment, your home, your work, the people around you, your own body (how you move it and what you feed it) – is in your hands. Does it nourish you to blossom in your life? If not, why not? Use this process to inventory and upgrade your creative habitat.
If a plant gets too much water or too much sun, or not enough water or not enough sun, blossoming cannot occur. You can’t just ignore as aspect of yourself forever and expect not to have consequences.
How does your garden grow? Inventory your creative habitat.
If you didn’t read my post on March 18th, please do that now. It will help you understand your habitat better.
Every place on the planet is comprised of four elements – air, fire, water and earth – though the quality of those elements varies tremendously. The same is true for us; we all are made of these elements, but we have choices in our lives. We are ultimately in control of the quality of those elements and how they nourish us.
So fill out your habitat upgrade worksheet and get going! Let me know how it goes by leaving a comment here or on our Facebook page.
If I can help you make the steps clearer I am very happy to.
Live creative!