Just to refresh where we’re at.
I’m trying to determine what makes a life worthwhile, and for me, this takes place in an ideal universe. And this ideal universe is organised by values, and the things I choose to value (right now) are shown below.
| flourishing | Given the circumstances, mere wellness is insufficient – I flourish. I take care of my physical and mental wellbeing, and not just present myself in an authentic way, but live the authentic me. |
| household | My tiny part of the world is a safe haven. A welcoming and comfortable home, a lush, abundant garden that supports me and the creatures that live within it. |
| relationships | I have close local friends and a wider circle of international and e- friends. I am an end in myself; not a means to another’s end. |
| pastimes | I have fun and go on adventures – meeting friends and taking international vacations. While I make time to relax and recharge, some might say I grow old disgracefully. |
| spirit | I challenge my thinking, living intentionally and giving back. I courageously act on my convictions in the face of opposition. |
| prosperity | I feel prosperous. My income meets my needs; I have the capacity for choice and the time to fully engage with whatever I am doing. |
As I said in values: conclusion, these values are both a decision-making framework and goals for my ideal universe.
Goals are generally accepted as things that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound – and my values are anything but that. They need to be refined into tangible/objective/hard (e.g. lose 5kg) and intangible/subjective/soft (e.g. feel better) outcomes. Some of mine will simply be decisions, processes or habits that will save time and effort later (as mentioned in values: introduction).
Once these outcomes are defined, it will be easier to bring them to fruition. Kind of like a project – Project Worthwhile Life. I need to make decisions, plan and execute, monitor and control. And over the next few years, evaluate, redefine and redevelop. Fortunately, I am good at planning and organising and project management, so that’s a big help!
The previous work outlining the values has formed the basis of the initiation phase of Project Worthwhile Life. It’s given me a big picture to work towards, identified involved parties (or stakeholders), and focus areas. I’ve looked at this work and concluded that it will be of benefit and should therefore proceed.
This means that I am now moving into the planning phase, and for each of the values I need to:
- define scope
- decide and schedule the activities required to achieve each aspect
- determine the costs, risks and so on
- formulate plans to control the costs, risks and so on
You can see from my initial brain dumping mind map that there is a fair bit of overlap in some of the focus areas.
- On the one hand, this is a disaster! It will make it very difficult to plan and implement activities, and measure their outcomes.
- On the other hand, this is great news! It means that a worthwhile life is messy and interconnected and folds in on itself and spirals out again – beneficial impact on one area will flow through to other areas, reinforcing and magnifying effort.
- On the first foot, it requires some values reconsideration to see if the amount of overlap can be reduced.
- On the other foot, it will be easier to work this out before I put too much effort into developing the plan.
So my next step is to reconsider the values boundaries. That sounds a bit tedious, but if you spend as much time working through the mind map as I did making it, you will see that it’s more or less all there in the picture.
My next post will update you on the revised values framework, and then we will start planning out each of the values.
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