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one of the greatest manifestations of effective personal leadership is the exercise of care and wisdom in building a high positive balance in that account.
We may set our goals too high, turning potential deposits into huge withdrawals when we fail to achieve them.
We may set our goals too low, depositing pennies when we could be depositing dollars.
Self-awareness involves deep personal honesty. It comes from asking and answering hard questions:
Self-awareness prompts us to start where we are—no illusions, no excuses—and helps us to set realistic goals. On the other hand, it also doesn’t allow us to cop out with mediocrity. It helps us recognize and respect our need to stretch, to push the limits, to grow.
Since much of our frustration in life comes as a result of unmet expectations, the ability to set goals that are both realistic and challenging goes a long way toward empowering us to create peace and positive growth in our lives.
Self-awareness empowers us to ask: Am I allowing the good to take the place of the best?
If change is driven primarily by urgency, mood, or opposition, it takes us away from the best. If change is driven by mission, conscience, and principles, it moves us toward the best.
Without principles, goals will never have the power to produce quality-of-life results.
A principle-based goal is all three: the right thing, for the right reason, in the right way.
The term “context” reminds us that personal leadership is not just having a long-range view—it’s having broad-range understanding.
An awareness of this interconnectedness keeps us open to abundance thinking and empowers us to create a powerful synergy among our goals.
The Quadrant II organizing process automatically creates a connection between the “what” and the “why.”
We may also select some Quadrant I goals that are both urgent and important, but we select them primarily because they’re important.
You may find it helpful to distinguish between determinations—things you’re determined to do, no matter what—and concentrations, areas of pursuit you focus your efforts around.
In fact, it’s important to manage your actual commitments with great care, being sensitive and wise in building the balance in your Personal Integrity Account.
To set and work toward any goal is an act of courage. When we exercise the courage to set and act on goals that are connected to principles and conscience, we tend to achieve positive results. Over time, we create an upward spiral of confidence and courage. Our commitment becomes stronger than our moods. Eventually, our integrity is not even an issue. We build the courage to set increasingly challenging, even heroic goals. This is the process of growth, of becoming all we can become.
Think about how you’re using each of your endowments as you set and achieve goals for the week.
But the most effective use of our time and energy is generally in a third circle—the Center of Focus.
In this circle are the things we’re concerned about, that are within our ability to influence, that are aligned with our mission, and are timely.
When we set and achieve goals that are in our Center of Focus, we maximize the use of our time and effort.
Interestingly, we find that as we do this over time, our Circle of Influence automatically increases. We find positive ways to influence more people and circumstances.
Like the photographer, part of our expertise in personal leadership is knowing when to focus in the most effective way.
But the problem with focusing on daily planning is that it’s like trying to walk down the street while looking through the telephoto lens of a camera.
Of course, we can’t just be focused on the big picture either.
If we don’t translate vision into action, we lose touch with reality, become idealistic dreamers, and lose credibility with ourselves and with others.
The perspective of the week provides a synergistic third-alternative solution that links the big picture to the day in a balanced, realistic way.
Renewal is not mindless, purposeless escape activity.
When we finally do escape to Quadrant IV, the change of pace gives some relief, but we generally feel empty and dissatisfied, neither renewed nor re-created.
Quadrant II weekly organizing itself is a renewing activity.
The important thing is to do it when you can be alone to connect with your deep inner life.
As we review our mission statement, we see the whole—the big picture, the end in mind, the meaning in what we do.
As we really begin to develop an abundance mentality, we find ways to synthesize even more goals.
The possibilities are endless.
The objective, however, is not to cram as many activities as possible into our schedule or to try to do everything at once.
The objective is to use our creative imagination to come up with synergistic, principle-based ways to accomplish goals that create even greater results than would be achieved if the goals were accomplished separately.
A good test is to see how you feel inside as you make...
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Life is one indivisible whole.
Whole-parts-whole thinking empowers us to see relationships and create the connections that lead to growth, contribution, and fulfillment instead of fragmentation, discouragement, and self-focus.
It’s the abundance “seeing” that leads to abundance doing and abundance living.
Priority is a function of context, or the “bigger picture” in which something occurs.
When urgency pushes us, moods pull us, or unexpected opportunities beckon, we have something solid against which we can weigh the value of change. We can put content in context and choose the “best” over the “good.”
Nothing goes on the schedule unless it’s important.
it’s putting the “big rocks” in first and filling in with whatever sand, gravel, and water we need to add.
The objective is not to fill the container to the brim, but to make sure that the big rocks are there and that the container is not so full it can’t accommodate conscience-directed change
The idea is not to fill the entire week with time zones, but to set aside a few specific time periods to provide focus for high-priority activities.
Much of our frustration and anxiety come from the feeling of being unprepared. Many activities become urgent as a result of lack of proper preparation. Through weekly organizing, we create a framework that allows for and encourages preparation.
The successful experiences most of us would like to have in life are rarely an accident. They are almost always an achievement, the result of careful planning and thorough preparation.
The moment of clarity when we organize the week gives us the perspective to set aside the time necessary to make that preparation possible.
Content in context empowers you to make more wise and effective decisions in your moments of choice.
