“Don’t ever confuse the two, your life and your work. That’s what I have to say. The second is only part of the first.” – Anna Quindlen
Are you living your life purpose and values or is something else defining your life? Sometimes we let work define our life. Our work title becomes our identity or what we have accomplished at work defines our personal worth. Sometimes other people define our identity. We can let family members or our connections with other people define who we are. How do you measure success?
In a previous couple of articles, I have discussed living a life of integrity or wholeness by being intentional and how intentional choices help us to live that life. So, how do we know if we are being intentional? How do we measure success through being intentional with our life?
Here are a couple of tips for measuring success through intentionality:
Measuring Success by Reflecting on Past Progress
When people are asked to define if they are successful, they often list all that they have accomplished. This starts when we are young. When my daughter is asked to apply for an honor at school, she is asked to list all that she has accomplished. When we apply for a job, we supply a resume that describes all that we have done. In the recent political campaigns, we see candidates discussing their accomplishments.
However, when we want to measure success with being intentional with our life purpose, we need to measure more than just what we have accomplished. When we only measure tasks, we measure our life by doing instead of who we are. We often like to review our day by what we have completed on our task list. I want to challenge you to create another list. At the end of your day, make a list of how you lived your ideal way of being. How have you lived your values throughout your day?
One of my values is to be relational. I regularly review my day to determine where I lived in a relational way, such as being patient, gentle or showing self-control. I have a client who has a purpose to demonstrate a life of peace. One way he can measure his success of being intentional is to review how he lived in peace throughout his day.
Measuring Success by Reflecting on Future Progress
A great way to be intentional about your future is being aware of your choices. We often do this with activities. We can try to determine if certain activities are in alignment with our purpose. How we use our time, money and resources often show what is truly important to us.
But I also want to challenge you to think about being intentional with your future in another perspective. Think about which choices in the future will help keep you in alignment with your state of being. What choices in your future will help you live your values and purpose?
Recently, I experienced this myself with my choices. As I looked at my future schedule, I saw a day that was particularly busy after school with my daughters. When time becomes tight, I know that it becomes difficult for me to stay relational. I lose patience and push others to just get tasks accomplished. People around me start to feel like clogs in a machine instead of valued for who they are. I am learning that choosing to have margin time in my day is important for me to remain intentional with being relational. So, I made a choice to pick my daughter up from school to allow more time after the school day instead of working an extra hour. This can be a difficult choice for me because of what I want to accomplish during my work day, but I made an intentional choice with my time in order to facilitate my desired state of being.
How are you measuring your success during your day? Do you measure just what you are doing or also how you are being? Do you measure more than the tasks you have accomplished? How can you begin to measure your success through your values and purposes by your state of being?