Prioritization Tools
The Pie Chart
The Pie Chart is often used in life coaching to help clients take a step back and get a more holistic view of their wants, desires and haves. Create a circle filling the majority of a standard sized piece of paper and then divide it into quarters and then eighths as show below.
Label each segment with an identified life area such as: Family, Friends, Education, Health, Wealth, Career, Home, and Life Partner. Starting at the center of the circle, visualize a scale of 0-10 with ten being the outer edge of the circle. Now within each labelled section write a number from 1-10 for how grateful and satisfied you are with this life space and shade in from the center to that point, e.g. for a 5 you would start at the center and shade in half of that segment. Complete this for all labelled life areas.
Now, identify 1 or 2 life areas that you would most like to work on now. Have the understanding that each life space interacts with each other providing both resources and potential drains upon your energy and focus. With each life area, ask yourself how you could raise your current score by 2 points, from a 5 to a 7 for example. I strongly encourage journaling your ideas no matter how silly or outrageous they may seem at this time! Allow yourself to play, to engage with your creative mind and “expand your havingness”. Allow time for this exercise and ideally come back to your journaling a day or more later and consider what actions you can commit to taking, for how long you will do so and how you can sustain your efforts while keeping your focus upon your own personal “why”.
Please review other DIY resources that may be of assistance to further and deepen your progress. We are continuing to grow our library of resources so please be sure to check back at a later date as well as share strategies that you have found helpful and would like to further share with our growing community.
*Raising your havingness is a concept I was first introduced to Invision Online School
Additional Intuitive and Trusted Resource Persons and Providers:
Kris Cahill, https://www.kriscahill.com/
Portland Psychic School https://www.portlandpsychic.school/meditation
Perspective
The Helicopter
The Helicopter or elevator is often used within coaching to help clients step back and get the “big picture”.
I personally like to metaphor of a building, when you are standing at the front door the span of your view, what you hear and what you experience, is drastically different from the 50th floor. On the 50th floor, above the noise and chatter, your views and perspectives are drastically different. Truth being that likely you need multiple different perspectives and understanding to chart your next steps, just be sure to balance “map making” with “action taking”.
Some people embrace the concept of our bodies being comprised of “energy centers” or chakras and that in a similar manner we can perceive and respond from a series of 7 energy centers or vantage points each with their own unique perspective and value. Information on chakras is widely available and I recommend you further explore if this area of exploration intrigues you! A trusted resource if interested in working with stones and gems to “raise your vibration” is Dave’s Rock Shop (no relationship to coachingbydave), https://davesrockshop.com/
Some people find Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, helpful in understanding this concept of differing levels of perspective with each “floor” having its own reason and purpose, see https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html. Much like a building needs a foundation before progressing higher; Maslow’s Hierarchy provides a possible framework or possibly even a map for understanding and integrating your varied perceptions, all being part of the larger whole or “True Self” that you are in process of becoming.
You may also enjoy reading of the Indian Folk Tale of the blind men and the elephant, https://www.peacecorps.gov/educators/resources/story-blind-men-and-elephant/ .
I challenge you to consider a continuum of perception, much as things look different “after a good night’s sleep”. I suggest asking yourself questions to gauge how you are perceiving and what strategies you could use to gain a different and perhaps higher or even broader perspective on your situation. One potential coaching question would be, “how much of your current perception is based in fear as opposed to curiosity or excitement. I encourage you to play with different vantage points and perhaps journal on your growing understanding.
A reliable map and understanding of the terrain greatly increases your chances of “arriving” where you intended. Happy Travels!