Lonnie Pacelli's Blog, page 45

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Make Better Life Decisions Using the Eight Drivers of Contentment

In 2004 I left a career that I loved at Microsoft so Patty and I could team-homeschool our son Trevor. With Trevor being on the autism spectrum, we felt he was going to need more help in his transition from 6th to 7th grade than the school system would provide. I focused on math and science, and Patty focused on arts and languages. We ultimately mainstreamed him back into public school by 9th grade. Today he is a college graduate, living on his own, paying his own bills, and leading a typical life for someone his age. Each time I look at my son I'm reminded of how the decision we made in 2004 was so right.

Fast-forward to today. My career post-Microsoft has been extremely fulfilling as an author, consultant, and publisher. But I deep down wondered what our life would have been like had I stayed at Microsoft. I decided to go through an exercise where I looked at what our life was like today versus what I thought it would be like had I stayed at Microsoft.  This is where something I created called The Eight Drivers of Contentment comes into play.In my Eight Drivers of Contentment Seminar I focus on eight specific dimensions of your life and help you to assess your level of contentment in each of those areas. The drivers are as follows:
Professional Contentment - How content you are in your current and future career potentialFinancial Contentment - How content you are in your current and future financial statusFamily Contentment - How content you are in your family relationshipsHealth Contentment - How content you are in your physical and mental healthLeisure Contentment - How content you are with quality time spent on leisurely activitiesLegacy Contentment - How content you are with the legacy you are leaving behind should you die todayRelational Contentment - How content you are with relationships built and maintained with friends and loved onesSpiritual Contentment - How content you are with your spiritual life
What I've found in giving the seminar and helping others is that the contentment drivers are very helpful not just in assessing your overall contentment, but also in making life decisions, i.e. changing jobs or purchasing a home. By looking at each decision alternative through the lens of the eight contentment drivers, it forces the decision maker to look at how the decision will impact his/her overall happiness, as opposed to looking at it from only a limited set of contentment drivers. As example, many people look at the decision of whether or not to take a new job through two lenses: financial and professional. While these are certainly important to consider, what about the impact on areas such as family, relationships, or health? There may be great career and financial potential with a new job, but if it means adverse impact to other areas of your life is it still worth it? By looking at decision alternatives through the eight contentment drivers you are forced to consider each driver and assess what life is/will be like for each driver.To help with your decision-making, I've included a simple Excel spreadsheet. To breathe some life into how you complete the spreadsheet, I've also included an example which I've copied below. In this fictional example, I articulated, for each contentment area, what life will be like if I take a new job versus what it is like in my existing job. I then color coded each box red/yellow/green to emphasize the degree of favorability/unfavorability for each alternative. The result was a good graphical view of how life would be under each alternative. 
In completing your decision alternatives, it's important for you to keep a few things in mind:Clearly articulate what your alternatives are, even if there are more than two alternatives.
Include anyone else impacted by your decision (spouse, partner, loved ones, etc.) in the process. They will most likely provide perspective that you may not have considered.
Be brutally honest about your contentment answers for each alternative.
Remember that at the end of the day this is only a tool to help you make a good decision. Don't get wrapped up in the tool itself or try to make the tool say something you want it to say.
After you complete your initial answers, give yourself some sleep time, look at the answers again, and adjust until you're comfortable with your decision.
As this relates to my decision to leave Microsoft, I reconfirmed that leaving to homeschool and start an alternate career as a consultant, author and publisher was the right overall decision for us. While we did sacrifice in a couple of areas, the overall benefits of leaving were worth what we gave up.

More life decisions are likely around the corner for you. The next time you're faced with a big decision, consider using the eight contentment drivers to help you holistically understand each of your alternatives and make a better-informed decision.

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Annual Goal Setting Using the Eight Drivers of Contentment

Over the past year I developed a seminar entitled The Eight Drivers of Contentment. In the seminar I discuss being content in eight dimensions of your life with the outcome of putting an action plan in place to work on those areas of your life that are most important to you and that you are least content. In the seminar we examine the following eight areas: Professional Contentment - How content you are in your current and future career potential
Financial Contentment - How content you are in your current and future financial statusFamily Contentment - How content you are in your family relationshipsHealth Contentment - How content you are in your physical and mental healthLeisure Contentment - How content you are with quality time spent on leisurely activitiesLegacy Contentment - How content you are with the legacy you are leaving behind should you die todayRelational Contentment - How content you are with relationships built and maintained with friends and loved onesSpiritual Contentment - How content you are with your spiritual life
Since developing the seminar I've found multiple uses for the content including helping a colleague assess a major career change and, most recently, using it as an annual personal planning tool which is what I'd like to talk more about. At the beginning of the year many of us embark on some goal to achieve, i.e. lose weight, get a better job, etc. I am an advocate of doing so, with two distinct requirements:The goal setting exercise should holistically look at your life as opposed to just one aspect of your life,The goal should be expressed in terms of what you can be realistically content with by the end of the year, not some overly-lofty goal that deep down you know won't be able to achieve.
In meeting those two requirements, this year I decided to look at my life from the vantage point of each of the eight drivers of contentment and come up with 1-2 items that I would be content with achieving by the end of the year. I have more aggressive goals in some areas and less in others. The point isn't to try to work myself to death trying to achieve a hyper-aggressive goal that deep down I know I won't be able to meet; it's being realistic about what I think I'd like and need to achieve.

To help you in your planning, I've included a simple Excel spreadsheet that you can use to help you in your planning using my eight drivers of contentment with my compliments.  The spreadsheet contains four columns; I've included an example entry for "Health Contentment":The contentment areaHow important that contentment area is to you (Extremely Important, Very Important, Somewhat Important, Not So Important, Not At All Important)What result you would like to achieve by the end of the yearWhat you need to do to achieve the result. As you embark on your goal setting journey remember to keep a few things in mind:Be realistic about what you commit to doEvaluate your progress on a regular basisBe persistentDon't be afraid to change your goals if something in your life changes.
Lastly, while this can be an effective tool to help you develop good goals, at the end of the day it's only a tool. You've got to take action and be disciplined to achieve the goals you set out to do.

I'd love to hear about your journey; email me at content@lonniepacelli.com.

Here's to a contented and happy new year!