What activities make you feel great about yourself? and so on...

REDIRECT: 15 KEY QUESTIONS

Feeding the ducks on the Labe River

If it’s true that we only live once, then it’s important to take our lives seriously. Too often we get so caught up in what we’re doing that we don’t take time to make sure that we’re spending our time in ways that harmonize with our values, skills and major goals. This exercise will help you think about your life from various angles.

1. What makes you smile? (Activities, people, events, hobbies, projects, etc.)

At the Museum of Play

2. If you unexpectedly had a little extra money, what would you buy?

3. What activities make you lose track of time?

4. What makes you feel great about yourself?

5. Who inspires you most? (Anyone you know or do not know: family, friends, authors, artists, leaders, etc.) Which qualities inspire you, in each person?

6. What are you naturally good at? (skills, abilities, gifts, etc.)

7. What do people typically ask you for help in?

8. If you had to teach something, what would you teach?

Beautiful fall colors in Trondheim

9. What would you regret not fully doing, being or having in your life?

10. What are your deepest values?

11. What were some challenges, difficulties and hardships you’ve overcome or are in the process of overcoming? How did you do it?

12. What causes do you strongly believe in? Connect with?

13. If you had $10,000,000, and never had to work again, what would you do with your life?

14. If you had 24 hours to live, what would you do? With whom?

15. You are now 90 years old, sitting in the sunshine. You can feel the spring breeze gently brushing against your face. You are contented and happy, and are pleased with the wonderful life you’ve lived. Looking back at your life and all that you’ve achieved and acquired, all the relationships you’ve developed; what matters to you most? List them out.

The power of Redirect

The power of a goal is quite remarkable.

 

Sara and I just had a stimulating conversation about the current status of this year's primary goal, which we agreed on in our January 2012 Redirect seminar:

 

To build a home in 2012

 

 

We discovered that, although the year was not at all what we planned or expected, it has been nevertheless been focused on building a home. The goal was always present in our minds and hearts, guiding us in subtle and not-so-subtle ways to make many small decisions along the way. Here are three of the ways that our goal influenced our choices and was itself influenced by the events of our lives.

1. We have strengthened some wonderful relationships with family and friends, while making new friends and enlarging our horizons geographically, prefessionally and spiritually.
2. We've decided to stay in Prague for at least two more years, and not to move from our little flat, which has been so pleasant and convenient.
3. We are still writing "21st Century Christianity" and hope to publish it next year.

 

All of these people, events, activities and experiences have molded our thinking and impelled us toward our goal, even though we didn't recognize it while it was happening. How?

1. Because of our focus on building a home, we lavished time and attention on the people who were interested in what we were doing. These people challenged our thinking and helped us dig deeper into what "home" really means. We're grateful for their support and the ways they've helped us refine our goal. Our travel this year has also been anchored in our goal, as have our professional choices and spiritual development.
2. We've decided to stay in Prague for at least two more years, and not to move from our little flat, which has been so pleasant and convenient. We thought in January that we'd move back to the US and buy or build a house there. But events and circumstances changed our thinking dramatically. Having our goal helped us frame these events and circumstances in such a way that they became guideposts and mile markers towards our goal.
3. We are still writing "21st Century Christianity" and hope to publish it next year. This book defines our original mission in Prague and points us to our next big idea/goal. Knowing that we want to build a home has added urgency to the completion of our book.

 

The key words here are challenge, focus, time, attention, checking our progress and a sense of urgency. All of these are elements in goal-setting and working towards a goal. Think about an athlete who wants to compete in the Olympics. First, the goal is set. Then the details are put into place, resulting in a timetable, a support team (emotional, physical and spiritual), a fitness regime, a plan to find financial resources, and so on. All of the details support the goal, which is the heart of the entire effort.

 

 

"Without a vision, the people perish," as Proverbs 29 notes. Without a goal, life is a featureless plain upon which the individual is moving without purpose or destination. He or she is vulnerable to the weather, to the intentions of the people he or she may meet, to predation by wild animals, and to discouragement and loneliness. Without a goal, life is like the bumper sticker--"you're born, stuff happens, you die."

 

We designed the Redirect career development program with simplicity in mind--one goal for the year. This simple idea has turned out to be far more powerful than we had imagined.

 

Our last Redirect starts October 7, 2012;

we'll resume offering it 

when we return from the US in January 2013.