The puzzle of us.
- danielleasherson
- Jul 16, 2015
- 4 min read
As I've mentioned before, I definitely have an all or nothing personality, which means I really have to work at holding myself back when I become passionate about something. It also means I have a tendency to laser focus in on one thing at a time, allowing other elements of my life to take a bit of a back seat.
I love listening to a podcast called The Chalene Show.
Incidentally, I also love her show called Build Your Tribe, but that's beside the point right now. The Chalene Show is hosted by Chalene Johnson, who I dicsovered when I did the Piyo exercise programme - her creation. I thought she was a fitness professional and nothing more, but I was totally wrong. This woman is amazing - she is successful in many ways and incredibly knowledgable. She shares some of this knowledge on her podcasts, and the Chalene Show is a kind of fusion between life coaching, motivation, wellness and fitness.
The reason I bring this up is because the she reminded me about the different elements of our lives that we so easily forget or take for granted. We are made of puzzle pieces that create our complete being. We are all vaguely aware that we need to look after our bodies, so we try to eat right and do some kind of exercise. We know we have to think about our careers, so we get up and go to work every day. I would hope we all have friends and families - these relationships require care and nurturing. The list goes on. The reason this was such a big deal to me was because I was getting up every day, with just enough time to get ready for work which meant leaving the flat in a total frazzle, only to get to work and plod through each day doing the best I could, but not really feeling a sense of direction. After work I would come home, plop myself down on the couch, exhausted, and later make dinner for Josh (my boyfriend) and myself. That was it. Every single freaking day. I felt so useless and really had no idea where my life was going, or even where I wanted it to go. (I have to admit that it is still a work in progress!) I knew I should be aiming for something, reaching for something more - even just a little bit of growth, but I had no idea where to start.
Chalene Johnson always talks about her 30 Day Push Challenge. (http://30daypush.com/) I ignored it for ages but eventually gave in to the nagging voice in my head that kept telling me I had nothing to lose by trying it. It was so simple - one little lesson every day, helping you to take control of your time, goals, productivity and ultimately your life. She starts by making you assess the 10 key areas of your life. BRILLIANT! My spin on this is that each area of your life is a little seed that needs to be watered and nurtured. Neglect those little seedlings and they will never grow or blossom, but give them a little attention every day and they will flourish.
Here are the 10 catergories:
Right?! Can you honestly tell me that you assess ALL of these areas of your life regularly? If you do, seriously well done, but if you're like me and you get so caught up in things, you really have to consciously remind yourself to look after each part of your life.
It is really important to remember that we will all be really good at looking after some of these categories without having to think too much about them. Go through the list and give each of them a score out of 10 and you will see exactly what I mean. For example, I look after my physical health, personal growth, significant other and leisure/fun without too much effort. Those things come naturally to me, whereas I really have to work hard to spend time working on my finances, career and even friends and family. Friends and family are so extremely important to me, but they are not in my direct line of vision at all times and that is something I personally struggle with, and have to work at. It's these things - the ones that don't come naturally to us, that need the most love and attention, because the others will take care of themselves.
Not only do we want to maintain these puzzle pieces that create who we are, but we want to build them up and keep striving to be better and because of this, goal setting is essential. I have set myself some really achievable goals. Things like saving a certain amount of money each month, or calling my siblings regularly to check in. That is all it takes to create growth.
Once we organise our minds in this way, we are at the starting line and it's all forward from there.
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