Years ago, the concept of working on your business vs. in your business got a lot of attention and discussion. The concept was that we are all so busy working “in” the business that we don’t spend enough time working “on” the business – the strategy and the planning needed to drive the company forward.
The Concept
Last week I listened to an episode of the Career Stewardship podcast by Michael Melcher where he discussed the same concept, but instead of focusing on a business, he suggested that you spend 20 minutes a day focusing on your career. Similar to the business concept, we get so busy and caught up in “doing” our career that we don’t spend the appropriate time thinking about the bigger picture of where we want to go – and working ON our career.
I’m totally aligned with this concept and realized that this is something I’ve been doing for the last 10ish years. However, I struggle with pulling my career out separate from the rest of my life. My thought here is that you start to spend 20 minutes a day working ON your life holistically. This would include all areas of personal development and wellness.
The Dimensions
Following Gallup’s research on Wellness, you could consider the five dimensions of wellness – Career, Social, Financial, Physical, and Community. If this doesn’t seem to cover everything for you, I also like the model with nine dimensions – emotional, financial, social, spiritual, occupational, physical, intellectual, and environmental – that is covered by many different online communities. I see the nine giving a bit more dimension to the five areas covered by Gallup.
The Practice
No matter how you choose to approach this – your career, your health, or your overall life – the key is to set aside time each year, each month, each week, and each day to to think about where you are and plan actions that will get you to where you want to be. I really like the idea outlined by Michael Melcher to set aside 20 minutes each day to think about your personal development goals and then set action items to move yourself toward those goals.
Summary
This week, I encourage you to block 1/2 hour on your calendar called “personal development”. During that time, work on your plans and don’t focus on all the things on your to do list. You could do a variety of activities – brainstorm how you want your life to look in five years, update your LinkedIn profile to reflect your latest accomplishments, try meditation, talk to your partner about your relationship and how you want it to evolve, create a list of books or podcasts you want to read/listen to this month. The planning activities you choose aren’t the point. The point is to PLAN….not just DO. Over time, the planning will lead to conscious doing and then lead to the change you want to see in your life.
The key is to work ON your life and not spend the time IN your life.
Let me know if you tried this technique and what has worked for you!