This is the fifth in a series of Blogs on personal management and how to lead a life worth living and be happy.
The arrow flies true.
As a child I used to go down the Rec. to play. The Rec. was the local recreation ground at World's End (an actual place in Sussex, England) near our home. One of the games we played was 'pug sticks'. A nearby oak woodland had an understorey of coppiced hazel, such as in the the picture above. The thin straight sticks we would cut to make a switch - a strong flexible length of wood. We used them as pug sticks! You mold a small piece of clay (the pug) to the thin end of the switch and with a quick flick you could send the pug flying straight through the air for long distances - even the length of a football pitch.
When we were older we used the thicker lengths of hazel to make bows, and the thinner lengths arrows. Pull back the string and let fly with a beautiful flight, and if your aim was good you would hit your target. The analogy - even if you were slightly off course the pug or the arrow, when it landed, could be a long way off from your target because of the distance traveled. People can have a tendency to want to start doing things before they know if they're going in the right direction. Consequently after time you can find yourself in a place very different from what you envisaged for your life. You, as the arrow, went off course! The longer you keep going in the wrong direction the further you get away from where you want to be.
One of my most satisfying roles has been to help people decide what is the right direction for them or their team. In organisational terms this is called Strategic Planning and it's a useful thing to do if you want to change your life in pursuit of purpose, a life worth living and happiness. Even if your purpose is something simple it does not hurt to place it in the context of your overall strategic plan for your life. If you're not clear on your purpose, then you're likely to have unfulfilled expectations, and not be happy. A personal strategic plan does not have to be a big deal either, my first was written on a scrap of paper, over a pint of beer in the pub! It's more a way of thinking rather than a need to document everything.
Some Definitions
Strategy: Strategy narrowly defined, means 'the art of the general' (from Greek stratigos). A combination of the ends (goals) for which you're striving and the means (actions) by which you're seeking to get there.
Vision: Defines your desired or intended future state in terms of your fundamental objective and/or strategic direction. Vision is a long term view, best described as how you would like the world in which you live to be.
Mission: Defines your fundamental purpose succinctly describing what you do to achieve your Vision. Mission and purpose are interchangeable. They're sometimes used to set out a 'picture' of how you see yourself in the future. Basically it's about what you do.
Values: Values and attitudes drive your culture and priorities and provide a framework in which decision are made. I advocate a strength based approach to guide you as you undertake your mission and interact with other people and the environment.
So what's your purpose? Are you passionate about it? What's your vision for the world and your part in it? What's your mission - the things you're going to do to lead a life worth living? Are the things you're currently doing helping meet your purpose? It's an exercise in thinking and reflecting, but it can help to write your purpose, vision and mission down, and keep it somewhere visible, such as on the fridge.
I use the mnemonic PARM to help me remember - Plan, Act, Reflect & Modify.
A couple of things to remember:
- periodically reflect and review what you are doing and where you are going - things change, and you may need to modify your purpose as you learn along the way;
- a straight line is not always the best or only way to go. Life is not black and white, there are many shades of grey, and many colours. Sometimes there are blind canyons or glass ceilings that seem to create insurmountable problems, but there's always another way of doing things.
Below I use a piece of scrap paper to illustrate this. 'A' is your starting point, 'B' where you want to get to, your purpose - (1) the direct route. (2) you've hit a blind canyon - the asterisk is a review point, where you choose a different route. (3) 'C' is a modified purpose after a review requiring a change of direction.
#2 also illustrates another thing to take into account - that is the external world and how it impacts on you. We may have a fantastic plan but there are external factors that impact upon your ability to achieve it, and these need to be taken into account when you're at the planning stage. A helpful tool to identify these external factors is to undertake a P.E.S.T. analysis. Political, Economic, Social, Technical - I also add in another E - PEEST - for Environmental. Analyse your plan against these headings to see how the external world may impact upon your plan. You may find you develop different tactics to achieve your purpose, or modify your timeline.
The other day I was walking on our nearby beach when I met my neighbour. She's a good example of a person with purpose and passion. We're fortunate to have a breeding population of little blue penguins in our Bay. However they suffer a range of conservation problems and the population is vulnerable. Habitat loss and the killing of the penguins by dogs being 2 of the problems.
She is passionate about the conservation of the penguins. Using the terms above she has a vision for our Bay that has a stable and healthy population of little blue penguins. She has a mission to practically help conserve the penguins: by working with landowners to conserve breeding habitats; to practically make penguin nesting boxes; and to be part of a campaign to educate the public about the penguins, not least to get dog owners to control their dogs during the breeding season. She does this collaboratively with others through the Mohua Blue Penguin Trust. Clearly she has strong conservation values but she also wants to work with people to achieve their vision.
There is much happiness here but clearly the potential for the opposite when, for example, a penguin is found dead on the beach. Both emotional states exist at the same time.
Waiting for penguins at dusk.
In the next blog I'll go into more detail on how to translate purpose into achievable objectives. I'm sure I'm not the only one who creates task lists that are impossible to achieve in a day. This is an example of the disappointment that can be caused by having unrealistic and unfulfillable expectations. Have high expectations but make them manageable, regularly failing to meet your expectations is a cause of unhappiness.
Write a comment